Police in Northern Ireland are investigating whether “violent dissident republicans” were responsible for the shooting of an off-duty police officer on Wednesday night.
(Bloomberg) — Police in Northern Ireland are investigating whether “violent dissident republicans” were responsible for the shooting of an off-duty police officer on Wednesday night.
Three men were arrested in connection with what police described as the attempted murder of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in Omagh, County Tyrone. The “primary focus” of the attack is a group called “New IRA,” the Police Service of Northern Ireland said at a press conference on Thursday.
Three men, 38, 45 and 47 years old, were arrested and are being questioned by detectives, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said.
The assault on Caldwell, which occurred at the end of a youth football team training session, is the most serious such incident in years. One police officer was targeted in a failed murder bid in 2021, with the so-called “New IRA” also thought to be responsible.
Violence in Northern Ireland — which spanned several decades known as “The Troubles” — largely died out after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, though there has been some resurgence in recent years, partly fomented by Brexit.
The attack was condemned by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
“I utterly condemn this grotesque act of attempted murder,” Varadkar said in a statement Wednesday night.
In Ireland, Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald described the incident as “absolutely diabolical” and “utterly unacceptable,” calling for an all-Ireland response to apprehend the perpetrators.
“There can be no hiding from this, there can be no sympathy for this. There is no rhyme or reason politically speaking for a vicious act of thuggery like this,” she told RTE’s Morning Ireland Thursday, before the PSNI statement.
“It is utterly unacceptable to all of us, of all political persuasions,” McDonald said.
Politicians in Northern Ireland including Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson and Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill also condemned the attack.
“We condemn outright the cowards responsible for this,” Donaldson said.
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