Two Arrested over N. Ireland Prison Officer Murder
Police in Northern Ireland arrested two men on Friday in connection with the murder of a prison officer who was shot dead as he drove along a motorway to work, police said.
The men aged 31 and 44 were arrested in the Lurgan area of County Armagh, southwest of Belfast, in the early hours of Friday and are being questioned, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement.
British media reported that one of them was a prominent republican but there was no immediate confirmation from police.
Prison officer David Black, 52, was on his way to work at Maghaberry jail on Thursday when a car with Dublin registration plates pulled up alongside his on Northern Ireland's main M1 motorway and opened fire.
His car veered into a deep ditch and he died at the scene.
Police said it had the hallmarks of an attack by dissident republicans opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process, while politicians from all sides in London, Belfast and Dublin condemned the killing.
Republicans from the minority Catholic community believe Northern Ireland should leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland to the south.
Mainstream republican groups such as the IRA have laid down their arms and joined the peace process, but dissident offshoots remain violently opposed to the power-sharing government in Belfast, formed of Catholic and Protestant parties.
The 1998 peace accords which ushered in the devolved Belfast assembly largely ended the Troubles, the 30 years of sectarian bloodshed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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