Loyalist militants likely behind Belfast hijacking, police say

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Professional-British loyalist militant teams had been probably behind the hijacking and putting of a suspect machine in a van that was ordered to drive to an occasion the place Irish International Minister Simon Coveney was talking on Friday, police mentioned.

The machine positioned by the 2 gunmen was declared a hoax however was clearly designed to trigger most disruption, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan advised a information convention, including that he wouldn’t speculate on the motivation of the crime.

“The sufferer believed he was driving a van with a dwell bomb and that his household had been being threatened. … At this early stage of the investigation our evaluation is that these crimes had been carried out by loyalist paramilitary teams,” McEwan mentioned.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)