The 'New IRA' has issued a statement apologising for the murder of Lyra McKee.
The 29-year-old journalist was shot dead when she was reporting on riots in the Fanad Drive area of Creggan, Derry, on Thursday night.
Ms McKee, who was from North Belfast but moved to Derry to live with partner Sara Canning, was rushed to Altnagelvin Hospital in the back of a police Land Rover but died shortly after.
Lyra McKee's friends hold protest at Saoradh office in Derry
Police said in the wake of her death that they believed the New IRA are behind her murder.
Now the paramilitary group, which formed in 2012, have admitted responsibility and apologised for her death.
A statement given to The Irish News, using a recognised code word, read: "In the course of attacking the enemy Lyra McKee was tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces.
"The IRA offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death."
In the statement, the group accused the police of "provoking" the rioting.
"On Thursday night following an incursion on the Creggan by heavily armed British crown forces which provoked rioting, the IRA deployed our volunteers to engage," it read.
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"We have instructed our volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy, and put in place measures to help ensure this."
The statement given to the Irish News was signed T O'Neill.
It comes after friends of Ms McKee defaced the outside of a Saoradh office by putting red handprints on the walls of its headquarters in Derry on Monday.
The group held the protest over the murder of the talented journalist and published author.
A number of her friends walked to Junior McDaid House in Derry, where they used a pot of red paint to place handprints on the side of the office walls.
A group of some six men, understood to be members of republican group Saoradh, who are associated with the New IRA, stood outside the building during the intense protest.
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