A MAN was last night being questioned by the RUC at Castlereagh Holding Centre in connection with Monday's IRA no warning double bombing of the British army headquarters in Lisburn.
As the RUC embarked on one of its most intensive investigations, the man, in his early 30s, was arrested at around 7 a.m. yesterday in west Belfast. He can be held for up to seven days without charge.
The arrest came less than 24 hours after the head of the RUC investigation team, Det Supt Derek Martindale, released a photofit picture of a man who bought the getaway car for the IRA bombers.
He drove the IRA members out of Thiepval Barracks on Monday after they left two Volvo cars inside the base, each packed with 800 lbs of home made explosives. The two blasts which followed injured 38 people, eight of whom are still in hospital, with one of them in a critical condition, and another seriously ill.
Police, with 40 detectives and 50 uniformed officers involved in the investigation, would not say if yesterday's arrest related to the suspect depicted in the photofit.
So far, the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC), umbrella group for the loyalist paramilitaries, has not issued a statement responding to the IRA bombing. There was some speculation that it might issue a response next Sunday, the second anniversary of the loyalist ceasefire.
The CLMC has been under pressure to continue its ceasefire.
It is expected there will be intense discussion of the IRA bombing, and the absence of political movement, when the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the UVF, holds its annual conference in east Belfast tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Mr Chris Ryder, a former member of the Police Authority for Northern Ireland, and journalistic commentator on security matters, has criticised the lax level of security which allowed the IRA bombers to gain entry into Thiepval.
Mr Ryder, a frequent visitor to Thiepval Barracks, said complacency may have contributed to the apparent ease with which the bombers got into the base. In his visits he had found security checks to be inconsistent.
. A key video surveillance camera at the British army headquarters in Lisburn has not been working for months, a report on ITN's News At Ten alleged last night. A spokesman for the British army Press Office could not confirm or deny the report but said investigations were continuing into the security breach at the barracks.
