WORLD BRIEFING / NORTHERN IRELAND

Irish Republican Army dissidents are posing their greatest security threat in Northern Ireland since the province’s peace accord 11 years ago and are receiving help from a few IRA veterans in plotting gun and bomb attacks, an expert panel says.

The Independent Monitoring Commission, which reports regularly on the underground activities of Northern Ireland’s myriad paramilitary groups, said dissidents backed by a “small number” of mainstream IRA members are responsible for a surge in violence since March.

The violence includes fatally shooting two British soldiers and a policeman; several failed bombing attempts aimed at members of security forces; and gunfire that wounded 20 people in a campaign to deter civilians, particularly Catholics, from cooperating with security forces.