Eleven questioned over NI murders

Eleven people were being questioned today over the murder of two soldiers and a policeman in the North.

The number in custody increased by two yesterday when the Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested two men aged 31 and 27 in Craigavon over the killing of Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, in the Co Armagh town last Monday.

Their detention brought to seven the number of people being held in connection with the shooting by the Continuity IRA of the policeman.

Two guns were also seized last night by police close to the spot where he was shot.

The two developments were followed by minor disturbances involving up to 30 youths who threw stones and bottles at police in the neighbouring Meadowbrook, Pinebank and Moyraverty areas of Craigavon.

Meanwhile the PSNI said it had been given an extra five days to question three men – aged 41, 32 and 21 – who were arrested on Saturday over the murders of the two soldiers at Massereene Barracks in Antrim 48 hours before Pc Carroll’s murder.

Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, were shot dead at the gates of the base when they went to collect pizzas which were being delivered just before they were to head off to Afghanistan for a tour of duty.

A fourth man is also being questioned about the murder, claimed by the Real IRA.

Among the detainees police have been given extra time to question is high-profile republican Colin Duffy, who was detained at his Craigavon home on Saturday – not about the policeman’s killing down the road, but the soldiers’ murder.

Duffy, 41, is a former IRA prisoner who split from mainstream republicanism over the decision of Sinn Féin to support the PSNI.

He came to prominence in the 1990s after being acquitted of the IRA murder of a soldier when it emerged that a key witness was a loyalist paramilitary.

He was later arrested over the IRA murder of two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers Roland Graham and David Johnston, who were gunned down in 1997 as they walked the beat in Lurgan.

The case against Duffy collapsed amid huge controversy.

His solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, received threats and was later murdered in a loyalist car bomb attack at her Lurgan home in 1999.

Her death is now the subject of a high-profile public inquiry and yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of her murder.

Another of those in custody is Declan McGlinchey, son of the notorious republican leader Dominic McGlinchey who, before his death, was dubbed the most wanted man in Ireland.

Dominic McGlinchey, a deadly gunman, was known as “Mad Dog” and boasted of killing 30 people.

He was a member of the IRA, but later joined the smaller INLA grouping which he eventually led before he was shot dead in Drogheda, Co Louth, in 1994.

Earlier, in 1987, Declan McGlinchey was present when his mother, Mary, was shot dead in her home. Security forces linked her death to a republican feud.

In 2006 McGlinchey junior was brought before the courts on a charge of possession of explosives, which he denied. The forensic evidence in the case was subsequently challenged.

Meanwhile, a senior figure in a political party which reportedly has close links with the Continuity IRA warned last night that there would be “consequences” for the British as long as they continued to “occupy” the North.

Des Dalton, vice president of Republican Sinn Féin, said “resistance” against the British presence would continue.