In Northern Ireland, a radical paramilitary group has destroyed its weapons.

The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was formed in 1974, when its leaders were forced out of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). From 1979 onwards the group - which wanted to bring about a united Ireland and the removal of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom - was responsible for more than 120 murders, nine of them after the signing of a peace accord in 1998. However, in October last year, the movement announced it wanted to attain its goals by peaceful methods.

The INLA had been given until next Tuesday to decommission its weapons. It had been warned that if it had not complied by then, its members would be treated as common criminals and their weapons actively sought by the police. The IRA finished decommissioning its weapons more than four years ago. The Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, decommissioned its weapons earlier this year.

The INLA announcement comes one day after the Sinn Fein nationalist party and its coalition partner, the Democratic Unionist Party, reached agreement with government of the United Kingdom about the devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland.

Photo of INLA mural by elhamalawy (flickr)