Intelligence Forces Recalled to North

SPECIAL BRITISH forces are to be returned to Northern Ireland to counter the growing threat from dissident republicans, it has been reported.

Members of the Special Reconnaissance regiment, skilled in undercover intelligence gathering, are being recalled from Afghanistan and Iraq in response to growing concerns about republicans opposed to the new political arrangements at Stormont.

They have been recalled following requests from the British intelligence service MI5 which has upgraded its assessment of the republican threat, BBC Northern Ireland reported last night.

MI5 said the threat posed was now “severe”, upgraded from their previous estimate of the dissident capacity which was described as “substantial”.