NAME: Real IRA (RIRA) a.k.a. True IRA
DATE STARTED/FIRST ACTIVE: February-March 1998.
GOALS: Removing British forces from Northern Ireland and unifying Ireland.
MAIN ANTI-U.S. ACTIVITIES TO DATE: None.
STRENGTH: 150 to 200.
OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS: Northern Ireland, Irish Republic, Great Britain.
AFFILIATIONS: Possible limited support from IRA hardliners dissatisfied with the IRA cease-fire and other republican sympathizers. Suspected of receiving funds from sympathizers in the United States. RIRA also is thought to have purchased sophisticated weapons from the Balkans, according to press reports.
COMMENTS: The clandestine armed wing of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, a "political pressure group" opposed to Sinn Fein's adoption of the Mitchell principles of democracy and nonviolence 1999 additions to the Irish Constitution, which lay claim to Northern Ireland. Listed as "active" during 2000, it was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 5, 2001.
DATE STARTED/FIRST ACTIVE: February-March 1998.
GOALS: Removing British forces from Northern Ireland and unifying Ireland.
MAIN ANTI-U.S. ACTIVITIES TO DATE: None.
STRENGTH: 150 to 200.
OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS: Northern Ireland, Irish Republic, Great Britain.
AFFILIATIONS: Possible limited support from IRA hardliners dissatisfied with the IRA cease-fire and other republican sympathizers. Suspected of receiving funds from sympathizers in the United States. RIRA also is thought to have purchased sophisticated weapons from the Balkans, according to press reports.
COMMENTS: The clandestine armed wing of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, a "political pressure group" opposed to Sinn Fein's adoption of the Mitchell principles of democracy and nonviolence 1999 additions to the Irish Constitution, which lay claim to Northern Ireland. Listed as "active" during 2000, it was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 5, 2001.