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Source: Reuters -
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Police in Northern Ireland said they had charged a 44-year-old man with murdering two British soldiers and attempting to murder others at an army barracks in March.
At the time the killings raised fears that Northern Ireland
might slip back into the sectarian and political violence that
claimed the lives of more than 3,500 people until the onset of
peace efforts in the late 1990s.
The man, who was arrested on Tuesday, is the second person to be
charged with the murders, which were claimed by the Real IRA - a
dissident republican group which opposes the mainstream IRA's
ceasefire and its decision to put away its weapons.
Previously Colin Duffy, a republican, had been charged with the
murders and is awaiting trial in custody.
"Detectives from crime operations department have charged a
44-year-old man with two counts of murder and six counts of
attempted murder," a police spokeswoman said.
"The man is also charged with possession of a firearm and
ammunition with intent to endanger life," she said. He is expected
to appear in court on Thursday morning."
Soldiers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar,
21, from London, were shot dead at Massereene army base, Antrim,
hours before they were due to fly to Afghanistan.
They had gone to the gates to take delivery of pizzas ordered from
the base as they waited for transport to take them to a nearby
airport for the flight to Kabul.
Two gunmen in a car parked nearby opened fire with semi-automatic
rifles.
Four other people were seriously injured, including the pizza delivery men.
One of the delivery men, a Polish national and described by the Real IRA as a collaborator, was seriously injured in the attack which was followed by the killing of a policeman by another splinter group, the Continuity IRA two days later.
Fighting between pro-British and Irish nationalist groups killed
3,600 people until a 1998 peace deal, which got a further boost
last month when loyalist paramilitaries proclaimed the dumping of
their arsenal and the end of the armed struggle.
Sporadic violence still recurs however, with this month's
Protestant Orange parades marred by riots by Catholics who injured
several police officers trying to separate the two groups.
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