Forte incremento degli attacchi paramilitari

Sharp rise in paramilitary attacks

Paramilitary attacks in Northern Ireland more than doubled last year as dissident republicans became more active, police statistics have revealed.

There were 127 casualties of terrorist shootings and assaults compared with 61 the previous year, and the number of sectarian crimes in Northern Ireland increased by a quarter.

Dissidents have launched a string of attacks on army bases, court buildings, soldiers and police officers and police have warned they pose a severe threat.

However, loyalists were also responsible for 69 assaults.

DUP Assembly member Jeffrey Donaldson said: “We are very much aware of the increased dissident activity in recent times and over the past year. There is no doubt that dissidents have increased their capacity to carry out such attacks, be they gun or bomb attacks.

“There is a real need for increased vigilance on the part of all of us in the aftermath of the General Election, we can expect further attacks to occur.”

According to statistics for the financial year which ended at the start of last month, there were 45 dissident republican shootings and 12 assaults. The figures recorded one shooting and 69 assaults by loyalists.

There were 77 firearms and 34,962 rounds of ammunition found during 2009/10, and 2.2kg of explosives were recovered during the year.

During the year 109,139 crimes were recorded as a whole which is a decrease of 955 crimes (0.9%) on the previous year. However, the number of violent crimes were up and only a quarter of all offences detected, an increase from 23% the previous year. There were 1,264 sectarian crimes, up from 1,017 the previous year.

There were 18 murders last year. Statistics recorded 6,187 injury road traffic collisions which resulted in 101 deaths, five fewer than the previous year. The number of criminal damage offences has decreased with 1,971 less crimes recorded. There were 3,319 drug seizure incidents, an increase of 3.8% on the previous year. Cocaine powder and ecstasy tablets accounted for the most serious seizure incidents.