Gunman shoots policeman outside Northern Irish school

BELFAST - A gunman shot and wounded an off-duty police officer on Thursday as he dropped his child off at a school in Northern Ireland.

Politicians blamed dissident guerrillas for the shooting which coincided with the 20th anniversary of a paramilitary bomb in which 12 people died and as politicians marked six months since they formed a ground-breaking power-sharing assembly.

"Six months ago today we took power back into the hands of local people," the province's cross-party governing executive, whose various members both support and oppose British sovereignty, said in a joint statement.

"We will not allow those who have nothing to offer except a return to conflict to deflect us from delivering a peaceful, prosperous and fair society."

Three decades of conflict that killed more than 3,600 people largely ended with a 1998 peace deal but there is sporadic violence despite political stability ushered in by the new administration earlier this year.

Police said the 43-year-old, off-duty officer in the city of Londonderry, also known as Derry, had been wounded in the face and arm but the wounds were not life threatening. He was able to drive himself to a local police station after the shooting.


SPLINTER GROUPS

Police Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said republican splinter groups, who carry on their armed campaign against British rule in defiance of long-standing ceasefires, may have carried out the attack.

"This is the work of people who are intent on violence, who have no commitment to ... the peace process in Northern Ireland and that would of course point us toward dissident republicans," he said of guerrilla groups which unlike the Irish Republican Army (IRA) have refused to disarm.

Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley, a staunch defender of British sovereignty, and his deputy Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, both condemned the attack.

"To shoot a police officer off-duty, taking his child to school, is really the bottom level of hatred and bitterness," Paisley told reporters.

McGuinness said it was time dissident groups woke up to the fact the war was over: "They are determined to plunge society back into a state of conflict."

Prayers were said for the wounded officer at a church service marking the 20th anniversary of the Enniskillen bombing carried out by the IRA in which 12 people died.

A report by Northern Ireland's weapons watchdog on Wednesday said that while the IRA was on a peaceful footing, small groups such as the Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA), continued to procure weapons, build bombs and attack police officers.