The "Real IRA" has threatened to murder the deputy chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Mr Denis Bradley, in an escalation of its campaign of intimidation of supporters of the North's new policing arrangements.
The threat against Mr Bradley came shortly after another "Real IRA" attack on the home of Mrs Marian Quinn, a member of the Derry District Policing Partnership. Her husband's car was burnt out in the attack, the third on the Quinn family in the past three months.
Other members of the North's 26 District Policing Partnerships have been intimidated as well and two members in Fermanagh and Cookstown have resigned as a result of the threats. Earlier this week, Mr Bradley, who last August received three bullets and a Mass card at his home in Derry, had offered to speak directly to the "Real IRA" in a bid to end the intimidation of DPP members in various parts of Northern Ireland.
However, a man purporting to be a member of the so-called army council of the "Real IRA"told a Derry journalist last night that no member of the group would "touch Bradley with a bargepole".
He described Mr Bradley as "a collaborator who is hated within the republican movement" and accused him of "trying to stir up ill-feeling" between the "Real IRA" and the Provisional IRA. Mr Bradley "should be looking over his shoulder right now", he said.
When asked by the journalist if that was an explicit death threat against Mr Bradley the "Real IRA" member replied "Yes, that's a death threat" and repeated that the "Real IRA" army council also considered all members of the DPPs as "legitimate targets".
A spokesman for the PSNI said last night that it was aware of the death threat. Mr Bradley could not be contacted for his reaction.
The Sinn Féin MP, Mr Martin McGuinness, condemned the intimidation and called on the "Real IRA" to disband. He described the "Real IRA" as a gang which was isolated from the nationalist and republican community, and added that he was "absolutely certain and confident that no mainstream republican is involved in any way in these attacks".
"It is incumbent on all of us to very forcibly explain to them that their activities are not going to succeed, and they should sit back and reflect on where they find themselves," he told The Irish Times.
The Catholic Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady, condemned "these sinister attempts to rid the DPPs of Catholic representation".
He added: "District Police Partnerships are a central part of building an accountable and representative police service. Those who have joined these boards out of a sense of civic duty deserve our respect and support."
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, described those who carried out the Quinn attack as "gutless, ruthless and faceless". He added: "But they are not going to succeed. They are not just attacking vulnerable Catholic members of the DPPs, they are trying to attack the whole new beginning to policing."
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, described the intimidation as cowardly and despicable.