The killings of two soldiers and a policeman this month in Northern Ireland were an act of war rather than murder, a hardline republican group said today.
In an uncompromising message to their one-time comrades in Sinn Féin as well as the British government, the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Féin predicted there would be more such attacks.
At a press conference in the heart of Gerry Adams's West Belfast constituency, the organisation's national press officer, Richard Walsh, claimed the Sinn Féin president and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, were guilty of "the severest form of treachery".
After the murders of the soldiers at Massereene barracks in Antrim Town on 7 March, and the fatal shooting of PSNI constable Stephen Carroll 48 hours later, McGuinness described those behind the attacks as "traitors" to the people of Ireland.
But in its first public statement in Belfast since the upsurge in dissident terrorism, Republican Sinn Féin justified the three killings. Asked if the deaths were murder, Walsh said: "I do not accept the use of the term 'murder'. They were acts of war."
He said while the deaths of Sapppers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were "regrettable" the fact was that they both belonged to the "forces of occupation".
On McGuinness's comments, Walsh replied: "Adams and McGuinness are guilty of the most severe treachery … Martin McGuinness should look where he came from and where he has gone over the last few years. They are now administering British rule in Ireland and supporting the armed forces of occupation."
Walsh was flanked by Josephine Hayden, a former Continuity IRA prisoner who was convicted in connection to an arms find nine years ago in the Irish Republic. Hayden said the deputy first minister's remarks about traitors "would be written on his tombstone".
Two men, including a 17-year-old from the North Armagh area, have been charged with Constable Carroll's murder, while a 21-year-old man was charged yesterday with withholding information related to the killing.
Six men were freed from detention yesterday after a high court judge ruled their continued incarceration was unlawful. A seventh man, prominent republican Colin Duffy, was re-arrested and remains in custody
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