IRA Splinter Group Behind Cop Killing

A second Irish republican paramilitary group claimed responsibility for the murder of a police officer in Northern Ireland last night, the first constable killed there since 1998. The Continuity IRA, which considers itself the army of a united Irish republic, issued a coded message saying, "As long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue." The murder comes days after the larger Real IRA took responsibility for the deaths of two soldiers in Ulster.

This morning British PM Gordon Brown insisted that gunmen would "never be allowed to undermine the political process," while the chief of police in Northern Ireland called the paramilitaries "criminal psychopaths." Police suspect cooperation between the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA, which was behind the last major incident in Northern Ireland: the bombing of Omagh in 1998 that killed 29 people. (More Northern Ireland stories.)