Republican sources have said the man who died from gunshot wounds to his legs in south Armagh yesterday was a member of the INLA.
Mr Derek Lenehan (27) from Drumheath Drive in the Blanchardstown area of Dublin was known to garda∅ as a petty criminal involved in passing fake cheques and credit card fraud for the INLA. Another man, aged 35 and from the Corduff area of Blanchardstown, was shot in one leg and was last night described as seriously ill in hospital.
It is understood both men were called to a meeting in Dundalk by a local INLA figure and were taken to a pub across the Border in south Armagh. They were taken from the pub after 9 p.m. on Tuesday to a road outside Jonesboro, near the main Belfast to Dublin road.
The two men were left in the cold and unable to move. Their hands were bound with tape and both suffered severe blood loss. Mr Lenehan and the other man were said to be in a critical condition by the time an ambulance brought them to Daisy Hill hospital in Newry.
Both men were transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where Mr Lenehan died early yesterday morning.
It is understood that Mr Lenehan was close to a leading INLA figure from Blanchardstown who is imprisoned, and it is believed that a feud may now be underway between factions of the INLA over proceeds from criminal activity.
On October 30th the INLA in Co Tyrone shot dead Mr Charles Folliard, a Protestant former loyalist paramilitary who had renounced violence and was in a relationship with a Catholic woman in the town. The murder was sectarian and carried out in retaliation for the shooting dead of a Catholic man in Co Tyrone a few days earlier.
The Ulster Unionist Assembly member for the area, Mr Danny Kennedy, said Mr Lenehan's killers had acted as "judge, jury, and in this case executioner".
Mr Kennedy said the killing was "another callous and brutal murder carried out by terrorists" and reflected "a general state of lawlessness in parts of south Armagh".
A local Sinn FΘin councillor, Mr Packie McDonald, said the killing had "come as a complete shock to the people living here".