Fermanagh Shooting Suspects Freed

A secretive British army unit was involved in foiling a weekend murder bid on a policeman from the border area – and may also have been responsible for the failure of a bomb attack a 100 miles away in Belfast.

As three of the five men arrested after the attack on a police officer in Co Fermanagh at the weekend were released without charge, it has emerged that members of the British Army's Special Reconnaissance Regiment helped in preventing the murder bid on a newly appointed police officer at his Co Fermanagh home.

One of the men freed had been arrested by Gardaí in Co Leitrim while two of four men arrested by police in Northern Ireland were also released.

However, two other men - aged 41 and 26 - are still being questioned.

The officer was not at home during the incident – with an undercover PSNI officer taking over the highly dangerous role of acting as the intended victim instead.

It is now apparent that soldiers from the undercover regiment had already been monitoring the movements of those involved in the border attack for a number of days.

This resulted in at least one shot being fired at undercover police officers posted in secret in the village of Garrison on Saturday to monitor the expected attack on the 'acting' PSNI member.

The police fired two shots in return but nobody was hurt and last night, five people were still being questioned about the attack which is thought to have involved dissident republicans who were targeting the Catholic man who joined the PSNI a few weeks ago.

He regularly travelled back to the village at weekends to visit his girlfriend and it appears he was targeted by the republican terror group as a result.

At first, PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott refused to be drawn on whether the military assisted undercover police in foiling the attack and would not comment when questioned on Sunday.

However, the BBC reported last night that the Special Reconnaissance Regiment provided the initial information that the officer was being targeted.

Undercover soldiers were then involved in tracking those allegedly involved in the murder attempt and the same dissidents are also believed to be responsible for leaving a 400lb bomb at the North's Policing Board headquarters in Belfast on Saturday.

Even though the PSNI said on Monday that the two attacks were not co-ordinated but the result of coincidence rather than planning, only the detonator went off and the main bomb failed to explode in Belfast.

However, 'doctored' explosives have long been associated with undercover operations where terrorists under surveillance are allowed to come into contact with bomb-making material – but with little risk of actually succeeding - so as to allow continued penetration of the terror operation.

Across more than 30 years of anti-terrorist operations during the Troubles, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) was in contact with IRA and loyalist terror groups, to infiltrate and undermine their capabilities.

The weekend operation in Fermanagh and the failed bombing in Belfast will further emphasise existing doubts the dissident republican groups may have about penetration by the security services on both sides of the border – especially as inter-state co-operation is at its highest level in four decades.

(BMcC/GK)