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The splinter groups linked to murders
Joe Murphy10.03.09
Continuity IRA
History: Formed after a split in the IRA Army Council in 1986 by hardliners who were backed by veteran Republican godfather Tom Maguire, who declared the new Continuity Army Council the legitimate IRA and Irish government in exile.
Resources: Downing Street says it has "a handful" of members. Other sources suggest 100 to 150. It has some guns stolen from IRA dumps and has tried to buy more from the Balkans. Raises cash from drug dealing, robbery, extortion, fuel laundering and smuggling.
Atrocities: Guilty of bombing and shootings, targeting military, the police, Loyalists - and former members. A bomb defused in Dublin in 2005 was perhaps its as well as four in Northern Ireland. Independent monitors called it "active, dangerous and committed".
History: Formed in 1997 by IRA quartermaster general Michael McKevitt and his wife Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, the sister of hunger striker Bobby Sands, in opposition to the Belfast agreement.
Resources: No more than 150 members, say Irish ministers. It took Semtex, Uzi sub-machineguns, AK-47 assault rifles, handguns, detonators and timing devices from Provisional IRA dumps. Members include bomb-makers and it has imported rockets from Croatia.
Atrocities: Many bombings, including the 1998 Omagh atrocity that killed 29 people, around Northern Ireland and the Republic. Attacks in London included Hammersmith Bridge, the BBC TV centre, London Underground stations and an RPG attack on MI6 HQ. A 14-year-old TA cadet at Shepherd's Bush was blinded and maimed by a Real IRA device. It carried out the attack on Massereene barracks on Saturday.
