Policeman murdered in new dissident outrage
Officers ambushed beside school
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A POLICEMAN was murdered in an ambush in the North last night, sparking fears of a major escalation of violence after the killing of two soldiers at an army barracks on Saturday.
The attack happened in Craigavon's Lismore Manor district, a predominantly Catholic area.
The incident is understood to have happened near Lismore High School at Brownlow.
Police came under attack while investigating suspicious activity near the school.
Dolores Kelly, an SDLP member of the North's Policing Board, said: "We are tonight staring into the abyss and I would appeal to people to pull back.
"I certainly would want to offer my sympathies and condolences to the family of the officer who has been murdered tonight and to the wider police family," added Ms Kelly, who is a member of the Stormont Assembly.
No group is claiming responsibility for the latest shooting.
Local independent councillor Kieran Corr said traffic checkpoints were set up around the Lismore area immediately after the shooting.
He said his son, who had been in a local youth club nearby, had heard a number of gunshots.
Parts of the area are known to have strong Real IRA support, said Ulster Unionist Party councillor Ronnie Harkness.
"There has been a lot of burning of vehicles and nonsense like that but that is not indicative of the local people. It is a very small number," he said.
The latest shooting came after it was revealed that the gunmen who killed the two British soldiers sprayed the army barracks with at least 60 bullets.
Police said they were "making progress" in the massive manhunt as more details emerged of the cold-blooded attack, which lasted just 30 seconds.
Investigators said the murders of British army engineers Mark Quinsey (23) and Patrick Azimkar (21) -- which were captured on CCTV -- had the hallmarks of being carried out by seasoned gunmen.
As leaders on both sides of the political divide united in condemning the atrocity, the families of the two soldiers told of their grief.
Mark's mother, Pamela, collapsed when she heard the news.
His sister, Jaime (25), who was rushing home from a backpacking trip in Thailand, said on her Facebook page: "RIP Mark, I love you so much. I haven't stopped crying, flying home now."
There was also grief at the north London home of the Azimkar family where Patrick's mother Geraldine, who is of Irish descent, and father Mehmet, a carpenter who originally came from Turkey, sought solace with relations.
Two senior Cabinet ministers are expected to travel to London tomorrow for an urgent security summit in the wake of the shootings.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin are to meet the North's security minister Paul Goggins and Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward, amid fears the peace process could be destabilised by the killings.
Details of the summit are to be finalised today, but officials said London, rather than Belfast, would be the venue for the talks.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday vowed that the republican dissidents behind the brutal murders would not succeed in their attempts to derail the peace process.
A meeting between Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and the North's Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, scheduled for later this week is also expected to be brought forward in light of the shooting at Massereene Barracks in Antrim.
Although the Garda have not been officially asked to assist in the murder hunt, there have been ongoing informal contacts on the increased dissident republican threat in recent months.
A massive manhunt is underway for the terrorists behind Saturday night's atrocity, believed to be Real IRA members operating from Belfast and Lurgan, Co Armagh.
The young British army engineers were shot dead as they went to collect a pizza delivery from the barracks' entrance.
The attack had particularly audacious features, with the killers not bothering to set fire to the getaway car which they abandoned 11 kilometres away.
They left the car, a Vauxhall Cavalier which was bought two weeks ago, intact.
During the shooting the gunmen first shot the four soldiers and two pizza delivery men, then advanced on them and fired again at the entrance of the barracks.
The condition of three of the injured is described as stable and comfortable.
The most seriously injured was a 32-year-old Polish pizza delivery man who is in a serious condition with gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen.
British army chief Brigadier George Norton described as a "callous and clinical" attack.
Investigators hope clues can be gathered from the recovered car, as well as from CCTV footage from the barracks.
The attack had a level of planning which indicates that surveillance had almost certainly been carried out on the base, so that the gunmen were able to lie in wait for the delivery van.
No particularly notorious republican activists are known to live in its vicinity, so the search for the killers will spread to other parts of the North.
- Shane Phelan and David McKittrick in Belfast
