The IRA has been blamed for the murder of a man in West Belfast who was found shot in the head early yesterday.

The man was found with his hands bound behind his back and a cloth partially covering his mutilated head.

Police said the killing bore all the hallmarks of a paramilitary execution-style shooting but declined to attribute it to the Provisional IRA or a dissident group. Northern politicians from across the spectrum have blamed republicans for the killing.

The victim has yet to be formally identified but he was named locally as Mr Charles Bennett (22), who was reported missing on Tuesday night by his family who live in the New Lodge area.

Mr Bennett left the home of his girlfriend on Clifton Park Avenue in north Belfast at 6.20 p.m. on Sunday. Answering a call to the door, he appeared to know the callers and said he would be back shortly but never returned.

Two shots were reported by residents in Milltown Row off the Falls Road at around 1.05 a.m. yesterday and Mr Bennett's body was discovered a short time later in the car-park at the rear of St Galls GAA Club.

Police confirmed yesterday that the cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head.

However, Mr Bennett had received head wounds that left him unrecognisable and security sources said fingerprints would be used to identify him.

The SDLP councillor for north Belfast, Mr Martin Morgan, said "Mainstream republicans are behind this abduction and murder, but to ensure that certain political conditions prevail, a cover name or flag of convenience will claim responsibility for this, if it is claimed at all". The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said he had no wish to add to the speculation surrounding the killing but expressed his "shock and concern". "Obviously this is a terrible thing for any family, regardless of what is involved or who is involved or of why this man was killed. I want to express my condolences and my regrets to them at this time," he said. RUC Chief Insp Mr Ernie Waterworth said the nature of the killing was "callous and brutal" which had left identification difficult. "It has all the indications of a paramilitary-style execution - the fact that he was bound and left in the circumstances he was left," Mr Waterworth added.

On Thursday the RUC searched a flat in the New Lodge area during their hunt for Mr Bennett.

Mr Vincent McKenna, a former member of the Provisional IRA, now with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau, said he understood the killing was an internal matter and Mr Bennett had been shot for passing information to the security forces.

"From Andrew Kearney to Eamon Collins to Brendan Fagan and Paul Downey. The IRA know that they can do this and no sanctions will be taken against them," he added.

Chief Insp Waterworth said there were no indications that the victim had been tortured.

However, sources suggest the most common interrogation technique used by the IRA would involve the victim's head being held under water in a bath, which would leave no trace on the body.

Mr Bennett appears to have been detained for more than five days before he was killed.

Ulster Unionist MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said the manner of the killing was designed to send a message to the British government.

"I think what we're seeing is the IRA once again doing what they do best. That is, using violence or the threat of violence to put pressure on the government to give way to their demands."

Mr Tom Campbell, the Alliance councillor also condemned the killing.

"I find it quite disgusting that the IRA could sink so low as to tie up, interrogate and then murder someone in cold blood. What sort of ceasefire is this?"