Threats will not 'unnerve' party

A bullet was found for every Sinn Fein representative in West Tyrone

Packages found in cemeteries in County Tyrone contained 19 bullets, the area's Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty has said.

Two bundles with the bullets, which also contained photographs, were found. one in Newtownstewart and one in Killyclogher near Omagh.

The 19 bullets equal one for each of the elected representatives Sinn Fein has in West Tyrone.

Mr Doherty said he was not scared by the threats, aimed at unnerving party members during the policing debate.

"This was clearly designed to unnerve Sinn Fein and Sinn Fein representatives in this current debate we're having on policing - it won't work we've been through a lot worse," he said.

"We're very aware that this could have come from any amount of facets of society here and we're not saying because we don't know who was involved in this."

In December, police reportedly warned Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly about dissident republican threats.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said the threats to the Sinn Fein leadership were "very real".

Republican sources said the threats to senior party members came from disaffected IRA members who left the organisation in recent months.