A police officer shot in Dungannon.

[oldschool]

A police officer has been seriously injured in a gun attack in Dungannon.

The off-duty officer was shot a number of times as he sat in his car at traffic lights on Circular Road at about 1730 GMT.

He managed to drive back to Dungannon Police Station and was then taken to Craigavon Area Hospital by ambulance.

The DUP's Lord Morrow said the attack was timed to coincide with Sinn Fein nominating DPP members at Dungannon Council on Monday evening.

"I am absolutely horrified and I am absolutely sickened," he said.

"It is time the government got the gloves off and allowed the PSNI to crush this dissident faction of republicans that are intent on causing maximum damage."

Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said anybody with information should bring it to the police.

"These people are attempting to plunge our society back into conflict," he said.

"I am confident that the vast majority of people here will ensure that this does not happen."

The council meeting has since been cancelled.

Real IRA

It is the second attack on an officer in the past few days.

The Real IRA admitted it shot an off-duty police officer in Londonderry last Thursday.

The 43-year-old man was dropping his child off at school. He suffered injuries to his face and arm, and is still being treated in hospital.

The dissident republican group said in a statement two of its members attacked the Catholic officer's car as it travelled along Bishop Street.

The Real IRA was behind the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 people.

[st333ve]

Ah the idiots play into the hands of unionists yet again.
They may as well be on the DUP's pay roll.

The real IRA has yet again give unionists the scaremongering they desperately needed to gain support for unionism.

I suppose they think theyre brave attacking innocent people and running away like cowards.

I hope they all catch leprosy or something, scumbags.

[MartinP]

What innocent people have they been attacking St333ve?

[factual]

Ah the idiots play into the hands of unionists yet again.
They may as well be on the DUP's pay roll.

The real IRA has yet again give unionists the scaremongering they desperately needed to gain support for unionism.

I suppose they think theyre brave attacking innocent people and running away like cowards.

I hope they all catch leprosy or something, scumbags.

I don't agree with you making out this is wrong because it "plays into the hands of uninoists". The actual reason it is wrong is it is wrong; if uninoists think its wrong they are right and Sinn Féin are in agreement on that.

[st333ve]

I know they are, but if the IRA rears its ugly head you can bet that unionists will cling to their union jacks and vote DUP in their droves.

It is wrong for many reasons, the main reason being that you should not kill people.

It is idiotic also for these people to believe they help republicanism, its completely counter-productive.

[st333ve]

What innocent people have they been attacking St333ve?

Innocent or not, i do not see what the person has done to deserve death.

Theres a polical processes to go through, guns dont give us anything apart from more funerals.

[factual]

What innocent people have they been attacking St333ve?

The policeman. Who 100% of the elected representatives of the people support.

[Aindriu]

What innocent people have they been attacking St333ve?

******************************!

[tiocfaidh]

These guys are feckin idiots. I fully support the provo war of the 70's and 80's, and I believe that during those years any RUC officer, on duty or off, could be considered a legitimate target. It was part of a larger war that was in fact a real war, that had an actual chance of success (regardless of the hindsight debate as to what, in the end, was won...). But now these guys need to get a feckin life. They are killing (or at least trying to kill) people for no reason. And to argue that they are merely continuing the war that SF and the provos have sold out on is nonsense. Moral justification, based upon history alone, is not justification enough for killing people. If there is no chance at all for success, and you have no popular support, and the people you are targeting are not any longer indiscriminitely targeting your people, then you are nothing but a gang of thugs. (Having said all that, and being a republican, it doesn't mean you then have to buy into everything SF is saying either...)

[ON THE ONE ROAD]

gang of thugs is a bit much. there is clearly a logic at work.