Scottish police investigating the murder of a former loyalist gun-runner today said they were hopeful of an arrest in the near future.
Officers probing the killing of Lindsay Robb, 38, who was jailed in 1995 for conspiring to run guns to loyalist terrorists, said they were following several lines of inquiry.
Robb, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, was attacked in the Ruchazie area of Glasgow's east end at around 5.35pm on Hogmanay.
He was stabbed repeatedly as he sat in his Ford Fiesta outside an off-licence.
Speaking today, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Buchanan, who is leading the murder inquiry, said: "Obviously the community is talking to us and hopefully we will be able to identify a suspect and get an arrest in the near future but we are not in a position to arrest anybody at this time."
Sources in the east end of Glasgow told the Daily Irelandnewspaper the man who murdered Robb was a contract killer and a former soldier in the British Army.
Mr Buchanan added: "We are well aware of allegations about a soldier and that is one line of inquiry that we are following. It is one of many lines of inquiry.
"We are still getting a reasonable response. But there are still a lot of people who have witnessed it that are not coming forward and we are still appealing for those people to come forward.
"We would appeal to people who are speaking to newspapers to speak to us. There's information there and one thing was that the person responsible was still in the area. Well, if people want us to do something about it, then they need to give us statements."
PA