Police have raided around a dozen homes across the North in a concerted move against republican dissidents.
Sources told the Sunday Tribune that a new dissident republican organisation, linked to the former Real IRA leadership, had been formed and the police operation was directed against it.
Officers searching the houses told occupants they were responding to imminent planned attacks on members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), according to dissident sources.
The raids took place in west Belfast and Fermanagh. Police searching one west Belfast home told the male owner that three PSNI officers had to move from their homes because dissidents were about to attack them.
Two men and a woman were arrested during the raids and are being questioned by detectives. A PSNI spokeswoman said a firearm, ammunition and several other items were seized by officers.
Police said the searches and arrests were linked to "dissident republican terrorist activity" but declined to give further details.
However, dissident sources told the Sunday Tribune that the PSNI operation had targeted a new republican organisation. This group is headed by members of the former Real IRA leadership who are based in the Dundalk area.
The departed from the organisation in 2002 in acrimonious circumstances, claiming it was riddled with corruption and criminality. The majority of Real IRA members in the North remained loyal to the organisation.
Around a dozen Real IRA prisoners in Portlaoise, including Mickey McKevitt, the former Provisional IRA quartermaster general, denounced the Real IRA leadership as being motivated by financial gain.
The former leading dissident republicans said while they retained their republican principles, political conditions meant there was no current role for 'armed struggle' in the North and republicans should focus on peacefully challenging the status quo.
However, there appears to have been a change of thinking on 'armed struggle' by some of the old Real IRA leadership. They have attracted several disillusioned ex-Continuity and Real IRA members to their ranks. It is not known what the new organisation is calling itself.
Its appearance comes as the Real IRA has stepped up its activity, carrying out gun attacks in Derry and Dungannon in which two policemen were seriously injured.
