BRITISH AND Irish security and intelligence sources are increasingly concerned at the technical capacity of dissident republican groups following Saturday’s murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in an under-car explosion in Co Tyrone.
They believe the dissidents are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their bomb-making capability, while the PSNI has described as “substantial” the device that killed Constable Kerr, a 25-year-old Catholic, in Omagh.
The PSNI, Garda and MI5 fear the dissidents are using under-car bombs that are miniature and more difficult to detect.
No group has yet admitted responsibility, but security sources believe that the Real IRA/Óglaigh na hÉireann amalgamation of dissidents was responsible.
Police carried out dawn searches of addresses in the Strathroy and Shergrim areas of Omagh, just a short distance from the murder scene, yesterday.
Local republicans believe the bombers did not come from the town itself where there is little or no support for dissident groups. Instead they suggest an attack may have been mounted by dissidents based in the Strabane area of Tyrone and across the Border in Donegal.
Dissident groupings are believed to have 600 to 800 members, with southern members providing logistical support for northern dissident units, including advanced engineering capability, according to senior security sources.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan spoke to PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott about the attack and anti-terrorist officers from both police forces are also liaising closely in an effort to identify the bombers.
While some initial reports suggested involvement in the attack of dissident republicans based in the Republic, security sources last night told The Irish Timesthis was "complete speculation".
Other security sources said they believed the bombing was the work of dissident republicans based in the North, who clearly had accurate local knowledge of the area where the attack took place and on the location of Ronan Kerr’s home, the car he drove and his work shift patterns.
The alleged leader of Óglaigh na hÉireann, a middle-aged convicted terrorist, is based in the Republic and has a longstanding involvement with dissident republican groups. He is a former senior member of the Provisional IRA.
Constable Kerr’s mother, Nuala, said that the murder should not deter Catholics from joining the PSNI.
“This is at a time when we are striving for a neutral police force for the good of our country and I urge all Catholic members not to be deterred by this,” she said yesterday evening.
“We all need to stand up and be counted and to strive for equality.”
Sinn Féin has unambiguously denounced the killers, vowed the peace process would continue and called on Catholics to continue to support and to join the PSNI despite dissident violence directed against them.
“They should still join,” party president Gerry Adams said. “We need civic policing, we need community policing. There are risks in all that we do.
“All of us who are agents of change all run risks, so these communities, the community that I represent, right across the island, we need to have a sense of public service and that young nationalists and republicans can be part of that,” he said.
The PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott is today expected to emphasise that unless he has community support, particularly from nationalists and republicans, it will be difficult to find Constable Kerr’s killers.
He is joining First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at Stormont Castle to condemn the attack – in a similar manner to how they condemned the dissident murders two years ago of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer – a time when Mr McGuinness described the dissidents as “traitors”.
Ronan Kerr’s requiem Mass and funeral may be held in Omagh on Wednesday, subject to completion of a postmortem examination, which is due to be carried out later today.