Six Arrests After Real IRA Vows More Killing

Six men have been arrested after the Real IRA threatened to kill more policemen and soldiers.

They were detained after a masked spokesman for the group made the threat at an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry.

Six Arrests After Real IRA Vows More Killing

Police are now questioning them in Antrim

The Real IRA is a renegade faction which emerged following a split in the mainstream Provisional IRA (PIRA).

PIRA's alleged quartermaster general, Michael McKevitt, walked out when Sinn Fein joined the peace process.

McKevitt is serving a jail sentence for terrorist offences south of the Irish border. 

He is the husband of Bernadette Sands McKevitt, sister of infamous hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Up to two dozen others defected with him, taking with them both weaponry and experience.

The newly formed Real IRA soon replaced the Continuity IRA as the home for dissidents.

Initially, they had access to small amounts of material that had previously been under their control: Semtex explosive, Uzi submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, handguns, detonators and timing devices.

In 1999, they supplemented their arsenal by importing military explosives and rocket launchers from Croatia. 

Further attempts to purchase and smuggle weaponry in Eastern Europe were foiled by security agencies.

The Real IRA comprises semi-autonomous cells, not unlike those operated by al Qaeda.

It has neither the command structure nor the discipline of the Provisional IRA, but should not be underestimated.

A year after it came into existence, it carried out Northern Ireland's worst terrorist atrocity when 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed in the Omagh bombing.

Three years ago, the group claimed the murders of two British soldiers in County Antrim . 

Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, were shot dead outside Massereene Army Barracks.

Constable Ronan Kerr , 25, a Catholic member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, was their most recent victim. 

Their booby trap bomb detonated when he opened his car door in Omagh.

Despite threats, the Real IRA failed to disrupt the Queen's historic visit to Ireland, but the terror group has no intention of abandoning violence and embracing peace any time soon.

©Sky News