Belfast media say an Irish Republican Army dissident group has claimed responsibility for the latest killing in Northern Ireland. The Continuity IRA distributed a statement to Belfast journalists claiming responsibility for Monday night's fatal shooting of a police officer, 48-year-old Stephen Carroll. Police say he was shot through the head at close range as he sat in a patrol car in the religiously divided town of Craigavon, Associated Press reported. The Continuity IRA claim follows Saturday's gun attack by another splinter group, the Real IRA, on a British Army base that killed two soldiers and wounded four other people. These are the first killings of British security forces in Northern Ireland since 1998, the year of the province's peace deal.
