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Floral tributes are placed close to Massereene army base after two British soldiers were shot dead - Source: Reuters -
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Northern Ireland's former political foes vowed the killing of
two British soldiers by gunmen would not be allowed to plunge the
province into a new cycle of violence.
Gunmen shot the soldiers as they picked up pizzas at the gates of
an army base near Antrim on Sunday. No one has claimed
responsibility for the attack but it was widely suspected to be the
work of a republican splinter group.
"Their intention is to bring British soldiers back onto the
streets. They want to destroy the progress of recent times and to
plunge Ireland back into conflict," said Sinn Fein President Gerry
Adams, for years the face of opposition to British rule in Northern
Ireland.
The attack was one of the worst acts of bloodshed since the signing
of a peace deal in 1998 that stemmed decades of sectarian and
political violence. It followed a police warning last week that the
threat from splinter groups from the Irish Republican Army was
again high.
Four people, including two pizza delivery men, were wounded in the
shooting. Police said one of the delivery men, a Polish national,
was critically injured.
The victims were collecting the pizza at the Massereene barracks
near Antrim, 25 km northwest of Belfast, when the gunmen pulled up
in a vehicle and opened fire.
After an initial burst of gunfire, the attackers walked up and shot
the victims as they lay on the ground, Irish state broadcaster RTE
said. The two soldiers who were killed were in their 20s and due to
fly out for duty in Afghanistan.
The 1998 Good Friday peace accord ended 30 years of conflict in
Northern Ireland in which more than 3,000 people were killed but
sporadic violence, much of it crime-linked, has continued.
The IRA, which sought a united Ireland and drew support from the
minority Roman Catholic community, and pro-British Protestant
guerrilla groups agreed to ceasefires under the deal.
"Those responsible (for the attack) have no support, no strategy to
achieve a United Ireland," Sinn Fein's Adams said in a statement.
"Our responsibility is to defend the peace process and the progress
that has been made to achieving national and democratic
rights."
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said an IRA splinter
group was likely to be behind the attack.
"We are talking about people who do not have public support and
crazies with guns in their hands. Whether it's the Real IRA or the
Continuity IRA they need to be defeated," he said.
The violence appeared to be a tactic to provoke a reaction from
loyalists to British rule, said Pete Shirlow, senior lecturer at
Queen's University Belfast School of Law.
The main threat was how loyalists would react, he said. But there
would need to be a sustained level of new violence for the peace
process to risk breakdown.
"I don't think we can go back to what we had (in the Troubles) but
it creates unease, it creates uncertainty."
Troops would not be deployed back on the streets and police
strategy would not change. Northern Ireland Police Chief Sir Hugh
Orde said
No troops back on street
Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a
former IRA guerrilla commander turned peace negotiator, said
elements in both the republican and loyalist camp were hostile to
the peace process but they were in a minority.
"We have to move forward, keep our nerve and continue to show that
politics works because under no circumstances can we allow
microgroups like this into the driving seat," he told RTE.
Britain and Ireland, joint peace mediators, both condemned the
attack. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it an "evil and
cowardly" action.
"No murder will be able to derail a peace process that has the
support of the vast majority of the people of N.Ireland and we will
step our efforts to make the peace process one that lasts and
endures," he said in a broadcast statement.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said: "A tiny group of evil people
cannot and will not undermine the will of the people... to live in
peace together."
Worshippers of all Christian denominations converged on the scene
of the shootings and held a prayer meeting at the edge of the
police cordon.
Wiping tears from his eyes, an elderly man among the crowd said:
"There are no words ... we thought this was all over. There's
a sense of helplessness that this should happen again after so many
years".
Nationalist politicians had reacted angrily last week to the
reports that members of Britain's Special Reconnaissance Regiment
had returned to the province.
The worst attack since the 1998 agreement occurred just months
after the signing when a car bomb in the market town of Omagh
killed 29 people. The Real IRA claimed responsibility.
