Seven alleged leading figures in the Continuity IRA will appear in court on Monday charged with offences including possessing explosives and arms and membership of a proscribed organisation.
The men, who include two pensioners in their 70s, will face the charges at Newry magistrates court . One of those detained has been singled out in previous reports as the bombmaker in the Omagh atrocity of 1998.
The seven were arrested during a major operation in Newry last week during which a total of 12 men were detained by armed police officers.
The arrests at a house in the border city have been described as a significant blow to CIRA, the oldest and most militant of the republican organisations opposed to the peace process and the power-sharing settlement in Northern Ireland.
All seven have been charged with membership of a proscribed organisation while six of the men face charges of conspiracy to possess explosives with intent to endanger life, conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life and preparation for acts of terrorism. Five of the men are also charged with directing terrorism. They are aged 30, 43, 44, 58, 59, 73 and 75.
Five other men arrested during the police operation were released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, rival republican dissidents attacked police officers in north Belfast on Sunday night.
An explosive device was fired from a launcher at a police vehicle at a sectarian interface between the loyalist Twaddell Avenue and the republican Ardoyne district at about 11.30pm on Sunday.
Although the device struck the vehicle, it failed to explode and no officers were injured in the incident.
A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) described the attack – believed to have been launched by the Óglaigh na hÉireann group – as a “cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers”.
In Derry on Monday, the other main anti-ceasefire republican armed group, the new IRA, have reportedly lifted a death threat to local council community safety wardens.
The new IRA had accused them of working in tandem with the PSNI in republican strongholds in the city.
However, a local trade union, the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (Nipsa), claimed that it had learned that the threat has been rescinded. Council workers in Derry had warned that they would go on strike until the warnings against their colleagues were lifted.
Alan Law of Nipsa said he welcomed the lifting of the threat and would engage with the council. “We intend to meet with the council to discuss all issues surrounding this threat and how the workers can return to work without any further fear of threat or intimidation,” he said.
Mark Durkan, SDLP MP for Foyle, said: “The public support for the wardens shows that their work is valued and wanted – whereas those who have made these threats are not wanted.”
The 11 community safety wardens were taken off duty when the first threat was issued last Tuesday.
