Armed group claim attacks on PSNI

A republican armed group has claimed responsibility for improvised rocket attacks on PSNI vehicles at two separate locations in County Derry.

Using a codeword, the breakaway IRA group Arm na Poblachta warned on Saturday that two devices were abandoned at the scene of the attacks near Dungiven on Friday night.

A British army bomb squad was later seen attending at the locations outside the Derry town at the weekend. After a series of raids in the Omagh and Derry areas, four men were held and later released without charge.

Arm na Poblachta emerged in 2017 and has support in Belfast and in Tyrone, Armagh, and Derry. It is not associated to any political organisation.

It has previously mounted mortar rocket attacks in the greater Belfast areas and several in south Derry . Among a number of alerts last year, the group warned in March that an anti-personnel device had fallen off a vehicle used by a PSNI member in south Derry.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Sean McGlinchey described the security alert as “despicable and totally unacceptable”. He said of the most recent incident: “there is no reason and there is no logic for it”.

“There are more important issues going on at the minute for people with the cost of living,” he said, and urged militant republicans to “come in from the cold”.

“There’s always something on offer, they have to come in and work the system.”

Urgent Appeal