First minister and deputy first minister briefed on Ronan Kerr's murder as Dublin says targeting of Catholic police will fail
Northern Ireland's chief constable is briefing the province's first minister and deputy first minister over the inquiry into the murder of the Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr.
Matt Bagott will outline the PSNI's progress in its investigation into the bomb attack that killed the 25-year-old on Saturday afternoon in County Tyrone.
Kerr is the second police officer to have been murdered since the Royal Ulster Constabulary was reformed and became the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2001.
The security forces face a renewed threat from republican dissident organisations whose violence has increased over the past 10 days. The anti-ceasefire republicans have been using new weapons including a more accurate mortar bomb launcher than those previously used to attack police stations and other strategic installations in Northern Ireland.
The deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, stressed that he and the first minister, Peter Robinson, were standing "rock solid together" in response to Kerr's murder.
"This is a time for all of us to stand up and be counted," the Sinn F�in MP said, adding: "I'm overjoyed at the way in which the community has come together over the course of the weekend to support the Kerr family and to support the changes in policing that have taken place in recent times."
Ireland's justice minister, Alan Shatter, has described the killing as a "barbaric atrocity" and vowed that the Garda S�och�na, the republic's police force, would be used to track down those responsible.
Shatter said he had been "very conscious of the threat from criminal terrorists" even before the Irish general election campaign.
"These people have murdered an Irish policeman and there can be absolutely no justification for it," he said.
The minister said the minute's silence at a Gaelic football match in Tyrone on Sunday demonstrated that the entire community stood united against the terror groups. Shatter said the terrorists were deliberately targeting Catholic recruits to the PSNI but would fail to "turn the clock back".
He added that he and the head of the Garda� would be attending Kerr's funeral to "stand shoulder to shoulder" with their colleagues north of the border.
The Gaelic Athletic Association is holding a press conference in Constable Kerr's home village of Beragh later. Leading figures in Co Tyrone GAA will be there to express their solidarity with the Kerr family.
The SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly has said the Lurgan and Brownlow communities are appalled at those responsible for security alerts in the area.
Kelly said: "People in our community are shocked and horrified at the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr and these security alerts have compounded their sense of anger and frustration.
"Yet again people have been forced out of their homes, businesses have been forced to shut down, children have been prevented from going to school and our town has been brought to a standstill.
"Those responsible for this evil are enemies of Ireland. They will not succeed in their campaign of terror and destruction."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/04/omagh-bomb-briefing-northern-ireland
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