Cop Gunned Down in Northern Ireland

A police officer was killed in Northern Ireland tonight amid renewed tensions with suspected Irish Republican terrorists, the Guardian reports. Responding to a call on a private manor southwest of Belfast, one officer was fatally shot in the head and another injured. The Real IRA, which claimed responsibility for killing two soldiers this weekend, has recently tried to kill several other police officers.

Politicians of all stripes condemned tonight's killing. A local Sinn Féin member urged the community to support police, while a nationalist assembly member said they were "staring into the abyss... we are on the brink of something absolutely awful." A party leader supporting a local terror group called for calm: "The perpetrators will not be allowed to damage our peace process," he said. (More IRA stories.)