Irish paramilitary group INLA disarms

The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)'s announcement came four months after it renounced violence, and follows a political breakthrough in the long-troubled province last week.

The INLA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), said it had disposed of its arms in recent weeks through the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), which oversees the disarmament process.

"We make no apology for our part in the conflict," spokesman Martin McMonagle told reporters in Belfast, but said the group will now work to promote political progress.

"We believe that conditions have now changed in such a way that other options are open to revolutionaries in order to pursue and ultimately achieve our objectives," he said.

The confirmation came after the resolution of a long-running row between the two parties which share power in Northern Ireland -- the pro-London Democratic Unionists (DUP) and the Republican Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA.

More than 3,500 people were killed over three decades in Northern Ireland during "The Troubles", which pitted communities supporting and opposing British rule of the province against each other in a bloody campaign of bombings and shootings.