DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS were the chief suspects for the murder of a policeman in Craigavon Co Armagh last night. The fatal shooting of the PSNI officer happened after 9pm in the Lismore Manor area of the town, just some 48 hours after the Real IRA murdered two unarmed British soldiers in Antrim town on Saturday night.
No group has so far admitted responsibility for the murder although police are working on the theory that it was carried out by dissident republicans. The shooting happened after a PSNI unit responded to a call-out to the nationalist LismoreManor area. They were investigating a report of malicious damage.
The PSNI now suspect that this was a deliberate attempt to lure the police into a trap. First reports said the man was seriously or critically injured in the ambush but late last night it was officially confirmed that the officer had died.
PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde met his senior officers last night to plan how to respond to this sharp escalation in dissident republican violence.
All the main parties condemned the murder of the police officer. First Minister Peter Robinson expressing his sympathy to the officer’s family, said he was “sickened at the attempts by terrorists to destabilise Northern Ireland. Those responsible for this murderous act will not be allowed to drag our province back to the past”.
He urged British prime minister Gordon Brown, who visited Northern Ireland yesterday, and Sir Hugh Orde “to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that innocent life is protected in the face of this terrorist threat across Northern Ireland”.
Local Sinn Féin Assembly member John O’Dowd also condemned the killing and offered sympathy to the murdered man’s family. “This is a time for strong political leadership and cool heads. It is a time for all political parties and the two governments to recommit to the principles which have underpinned the peace process,” he said.
Meanwhile, PSNI detectives are to examine CCTV footage of the Real IRA attack on the British army base at Massereene to determine if it can assist in tracking down the gang who killed the two young English soldiers.
At Stormont yesterday British prime minister Gordon Brown, Peter Robinson and Gerry Adams, in a strong show of political unity, insisted the killings would not be allowed to derail the political process. It emerged last night that the security cameras captured Saturday night’s attack on the two unarmed soldiers who were gunned down as they accepted a pizza delivery at the base. Some 60 shots were fired in the 30-second attack.
Detectives are now examining the footage to see if there is enough detail to help them identify the masked Real IRA gunmen who shot dead the soldiers and also wounded two other soldiers and two pizza delivery men, one of whom, a Polish national, remains seriously ill in hospital. The injured soldiers and the local delivery man are described as stable in Antrim hospital.
Police are also hoping that forensic examination of a Vauxhall Cavalier car, which they believe may have been the Real IRA gang’s getaway vehicle, will help them identify who was involved in the attack.
The car was discovered abandoned at Ranaghan Road near Randalstown, Co Antrim, not long after the shooting. The car remained at the scene yesterday as police acted carefully in case it was booby-trapped.
The soldiers murdered in the shooting were Mark Quinsey (23) from Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar (21) from Wood Green, London. Members of the 38th engineering regiment, they had been due to fly out to serve in Afghanistan within hours of the attack.
British prime minister Mr Brown visited the Massereene base yesterday where he met PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde and Brig George Norton who described his soldiers as “magnificent individuals”.