Man arrested over murder of soldiers

A man was arrested today by police investigating the Real IRA murders of two soldiers at the gates of a Northern Ireland army base earlier this year.

The 43-year-old was detained in west Belfast and taken to the police service's serious crime suite in Antrim.

He is being questioned about the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, who were gunned down at the gates of Massereene Barracks in Antrim in March.

He is also being questioned about the attempted murder of five people in the same gun attack, two of them drivers delivering pizza to a soldier who was about to head off for a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Leading dissident republican Colin Duffy, 41, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, has already been charged with the murder. A second man, cystic fibrosis sufferer Brian Shivers, 44, from Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, has also been charged with the killings. He was granted bail because of his condition.

The soldiers were the first to be murdered in Northern Ireland in 12 years, and their deaths were followed two days later by the Continuity IRA murder of Pc Stephen Carroll in Craigavon. He was the first policeman to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.

A 22-year-old man being questioned about the policeman's murder was released today pending a report being sent by police to the Public Prosecution Service.

* Source: The Belfast Telegraph.