High profile republican Colin Duffy is one of three men arrested over the murder of two soldiers outside Massereene barracks in Northern Ireland last week.
Police arrested the 41-year-old Duffy and two other men aged 32 and 21 in the Lurgan area of Co Armagh and in Bellaghy, Co Londonderry over the fatal shooting of soldiers, Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, who were ambushed as they took a pizza delivery outside the base hours before flying off to Afghanistan. Two other soldiers were injured and two pizza delivery men were also wounded.
Former IRA prisoner Duffy had broken away from mainstream republicans and is part of a protest group that criticised Sinn Fein's decision to back the new Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Duffy came to prominence in the 1990s after he was acquitted of the murder of a soldier when it emerged a key witness against him was a loyalist paramilitary, but was later arrested over the subsequent murder of two police constables though the case collapsed.
His solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, received threats after representing him in court and she was 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.
A prayer service will be held today near the army base in honour of the murdered troops, along with police constable Stephen Carroll, 48, who was killed by gunmen in an attack launched in Craigavon, Co Armagh on Monday night.
Detectives are questioning three suspects about the shooting of Constable Carroll in a housing estate in Craigavon by the Continuity IRA, another outlawed group.
His funeral yesterday was attended by senior officers, politicians and leaders from across the community.
Parents of a soldier wounded in the attack, Pauline and Roy Fitzpatrick, told how an early morning phone call delivered the shocking news that their son Marc, 21, had been injured when gunmen fired on troops.
Mr and Mrs Fitzpatrick flew from their home in Caerphilly, Wales, to Northern Ireland to keep a vigil at their son's bedside and recounted how he asked for floral tributes to be left in honour of his dead comrades before he underwent a nine hour operation.
Mrs Fitzpatrick said she was "totally shell shocked" by the news of the attack.
"We were informed in the early hours of Sunday morning. We had expected him to be up in the air flying to Afghanistan, so it came as a big shock. You kind of prepare yourself for something happening in Afghanistan, not on a Saturday night," she said.
She said had she spoken to her son at 5pm earlier that day and that since he was not allowed his mobile phone during his Afghanistan tour, she did not expect to hear from him again for two weeks.
In one of the most outspoken condemnations of recent days, Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein branded the killers criminals and traitors.
Mrs Fitzpatrick said her family had been heartened by the support they had received.
She said: "I genuinely know because I have had people come up to me and say they can't believe what's happened.
"We thought that this was our new way of life now after the years we have lived. The normal Irish person is not like this, they don't want this, they want peace and we know that. We know the elements that did this are just criminals, nothing more."
Source:the times
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