Nine quizzed over N Ireland murders

12 April 2012

Detectives are questioning nine people over the murders of two soldiers and a police officer in Northern Ireland after a series of raids where investigators seized a gun and ammunition.

The weapons seizure was made in Craigavon, Co Armagh, on Saturday night by officers probing the policeman's murder.

This came as officers who arrested high-profile republican Colin Duffy in Lurgan over the murder of the two soldiers were attacked by masked youths.

The murders were carried out by the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA dissident republican groups, who are intent on derailing the peace process, and who reject the decision of the mainstream IRA to end violence.

Detectives are now questioning five people over the murder of PC Stephen Carroll, 48, who was killed by gunmen from the Continuity IRA in an attack launched in Craigavon on Monday night.

Among them is a 30-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man arrested on Saturday in the Craigavon area.

A further three men were also arrested on Saturday by police probing the murders of soldiers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, who were gunned down by the Real IRA as they collected pizzas at the gates of the Massereene Barracks in Antrim last Saturday night.

Former IRA prisoner Duffy has broken away from mainstream republicans and criticised Sinn Fein's decision to back the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Following his arrest, gangs took to the streets near his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, police were pelted with stones and petrol bombs were hurled at PSNI vehicles.

Duffy came to prominence in the 1990s after he was acquitted of the murder of a soldier when it emerged that a key witness against him was a loyalist paramilitary. He was later arrested over the subsequent murder of two police constables, but the case collapsed.

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