PSNI comb car for clues to barracks shooting

A getaway car used by the Real IRA killers of two soldiers in the North could hold clues leading to a major breakthrough.

Detectives are also combing CCTV footage of Saturday night’s fatal shooting at the Massereene Barracks in Antrim.

Around 60 bullets were fired at the helpless victims, Sapper Mark Quinsey, 23, and Sapper Patrick Azimkar, 21, as they took a pizza delivery shortly before deployment to Afghanistan.

Two other servicemen and two pizza delivery men were injured at the base’s gates during the 30-second onslaught.

Dissident republicans claimed responsibility but there was unanimous condemnation across the political divide of what was seen as an attempt to destabilise devolved political power-sharing institutions.

Officers are hoping the discovery of the gunmen’s getaway car may yield forensic evidence after attempts to set the vehicle alight failed.

The green Vauxhall Cavalier, found seven miles from the base and carrying the registration TDZ 7309, was bought two weeks ago.

Explosives experts checked the car before a closer examination is carried out.

Det. Ch. Supt Derek Williamson has said police were making progress.

“It is very much early days in the investigation but again I have to reiterate we need public support.”

The two young soldiers were the first to be murdered in the North in 12 years since Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick was killed by an IRA sniper in 1997.

A total of 763 troops were murdered during the army’s Operation Banner which spanned the North's conflict.

Roman Catholic and Protestant communities prayed together at Massereene barracks in the aftermath of the attack and senior clergy from the Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church visited the injured in hospital.

The four wounded included two pizza delivery men, one 19-year-old Anthony Watson and the second a Polish father aged 32.

Trade union leaders will stage rallies across the North in opposition to the Massereene attack.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the North's First and Deputy First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness and a host of other politicians condemned those responsible.

Sinn Féin’s leaders called for anybody with information to go to police and described the shooting as a tragedy but recognised the “unsettled” history of the British Army, which, it claimed, is not wanted by republicans in the country.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said the shooting repelled politicians in the North and in the Republic of Ireland.

Political leaders and security chiefs from both sides of the border will meet this week for talks.

Mr Woodward said the victims were held in the highest regard in their regiment.

Sapper Azimkar, from London, was a talented footballer who had trials with Tottenham Hotspur while Sapper Quinsey, from Birmingham, was described by friends on the Facebook social networking site as “fearless”.

Northern Ireland’s First and Deputy First Ministers are flying to the US to reassure investors as the manhunt for their killers gathers pace.