Northern Ireland police say Republicans failed in attack on officers

Police in Northern Ireland said on Saturday they believed that dissident Republicans tried to kill police officers in an incident overnight. Police said they received a report around midnight of a loud bang in the town of Craigavon shortly before a Belfast-based newspaper took a telephone call claiming that a device had been fired at a police patrol but it had missed its target.

It was unclear if the device was fired at the passing patrol car or if the attack was set up to target police officers while they responded to reports from the public, police said. A 1998 peace deal largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, but police officers are sporadically targeted by small splinter groups of mostly Republicans who opposed to Britain's rule over the province.