The INLA has said attacks on nationalists are putting an "impossible" strain on republicans and warned that unless they end, a republic response is inevitable.
In a statement released yesterday, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), the paramilitary group said it stood by its decision to go on ceasefire in 1998 but said it "viewed with increasing concern the escalating attacks on the nationalist working class by hate-filled loyalism". There have been increased sectarian tensions recently in a number of parts of the North , especially north Belfast where there have been regular riots this summer.
" We warn that such attacks put an impossible strain on republicans. Unless there is a halt then a republican response is inevitable," the statement said.
It was not possible to contact the IRSP last night but Mr Alban Maginness, SDLP Assembly member for North Belfast, said the message was menacing. "It seems to me that it was a threat that in certain circumstances they would take what they term as military actions."
The INLA also called for the release under the Belfast Agreement of Mr Dessie O'Hare, one of its most senior and well-known members. Mr O'Hare, at one tome known as "the Border Fox", is serving 40 years for the kidnapping and assault of the dentist Mr John O'Grady.
Mr O'Hare has claimed that as a member of the INLA he should qualify for early release under the agreement but his case is still under review by the Release of Prisoners Commission. The commission advises the Minister for Justic which prisoners should be given early release under the agreement.
The INLA criticised unionist leaders for "allowing the Protestant working class to be marginalised by the political process".
"We call on community activistsand trade unionists withing the Protestant working class to moblisie within that constituency and seize the political leadership from the drug-dealing loyalists of the UDA."
The group said it commended the restraint its volunteers "particularly in North Belfast have shown over the least year. They have not been found wanting in defending working class communities. The disciplined and controlled response to provocative and murderous attacks is to be commended."