Dissident group linked to killings

The New IRA is the biggest of the dissident republican groups operating in Northern Ireland.

It has been linked with four murders, including the shooting of journalist Lyra Mckee in Londonderry on Thursday night.

The other murders include PC Ronan Kerr, who was killed by an under-car bomb in Omagh in 2011. The group is also linked to the deaths of prison officers David Black, who was shot as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison in 2012, and Adrian Ismay, who died in 2016 after a bomb exploded under his van outside his home in east Belfast.

The New IRA is believed to have been formed between 2011 and 2012 after the merger of a number of smaller groups, including the Real IRA, the group behind the 1998 Omagh bomb.itisstrongestinlondonderry, north and west Belfast, Strabane in Co Derry, Lurgan in Co Armagh, and parts of Tyrone.

The group was responsible for a car bomb planted outside the courthouse in Bishop Street, Londonderry in January. The explosives-laden car was left on the city centre street on a Saturday night, and scores of people had walked past before it detonated.

It also claimed a number package bombs posted to targets in London and Glasgow in March.