Republican terror groups are capable of carrying out “one-off” attacks on the British mainland, the Government has warned, and are sufficiently armed to pose an “enduring threat”. Threat assessments have concluded that the Real IRA and other dissident republicans still “aspire” to target the UK even if Northern Ireland remains it main focus.
It comes as MI5 warned the threat from such groups is four times greater than figures suggest and some are reverting to old Provisional IRA methods. For every dissident attack in Northern Ireland last year the Security Service helped foil three to four, the head of the spy agency said.
In October, a review for the Government concluded that all the main republican and loyalist paramilitary terrorist groups remain in existence, 17 years after the Good Friday peace deal. The review by police and MI5 said all the paramilitary groups that declared ceasefires during the peace process in the 1990s have since gone on to commit murders. And while none of the groups were currently planning or conducting terror attacks, individual members with histories of violence remained a threat to national security, it said. |