A RECENTLY formed republican paramilitary group calling itself 'the IRA' last night admitted responsibility for killing a man in north Belfast named locally as Kevin Kearney.
In a statement issued to The Irish News the group said the dead man was shot after an "investigation" was carried out by the organisation. The victim, who lived in Dunmore Avenue, off the Antrim road, is believed to have been shot on Tuesday but his body was only discovered shortly after 3.30pm yesterday in the Alexandra Park in north Belfast.
Mr Kearney is the second person in the north killed by the dissident group which came into existence last year, after a merger between the real IRA, north-west-based Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and an independent republican unit based mainly in mid-Ulster. The first victim was prison officer David Black, murdered as he drove to work in November 2012.
In the past, RAAD regularly targeted drug dealers in the Derry area.
'the IRA' says it killed Mr Kearney, under-stood to be in his forties and originally from Ardoyne, "in response to complaints within our community".