A group calling itself the Irish Republican Liberation Army (IRLA) claimed responsibility for Monday night's gun attack and vowed to carry out further attacks across the North. "There is now a central command within our organisation. More shootings will follow," their statement read. The group singled out also Sinn Féin representatives in their statement, demanding they resign from District Policing Partnership (DPP) boards.

A republican source in Derry said the new group is made up of former members of the Continuity IRA. "This appears to be a very small group of ex-Continuity IRA people who have left that organisation for various reasons. I wouldn't imagine they would have much of a presence of support in Derry," the source said.

Two people were arrested following the shooting in Tyrone and these were condemned by Richard Walsh, a Derry-based spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin, the group widely regarded as the political wing of the Continuity IRA. "Such actions by enemy forces will only increase the resolve of true republicans to expel the British from our country. Despite the hype of the Provisionals, Free Staters and others, they are in Ireland not as peacekeepers but instead as an occupying power. Their continued presence remains the greatest crime perpetrated against the Irish people," he said.