2 killed by gunfire at N. Ireland army base

[David]

AP


BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Gunmen opened fire outside a military barracks Saturday night, killing two men and injuring four others in the first attack of its kind in more than a decade, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shootings at Massereene Barracks northwest of Belfast, but suspicion is likely to center on dissident republican groups opposed to the Irish Republican Army's cease-fire.

The victims were not immediately identified.

"There have been two fatalities. It is understood that those two fatalities are male," said a police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

"It is also understood that a further four males have been brought to hospital and are in a serious condition."

It has been 12 years since a soldier was killed in a similar incident in Northern Ireland. Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, 23, was shot by an IRA sniper at a checkpoint in Bessbrook, County Armagh in February 1997. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 led to a virtual end of the conflict known as "the Troubles," which saw about 3,000 deaths over three decades.

Kylie McLaughlin, who lives near the scene, said he heard "constant fire like a machine gun."

"It was very scary, we were not sure what was happening. We just can't believe it has happened here," he told the BBC.

The attack came a day after Northern Ireland's chief constable, Hugh Orde, confirmed that a small undercover army unit had been called in to beef up surveillance of dissidents.

But leaders of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority accused Orde of exaggerating the dissident threat and undermining a milestone of peacemaking — the July 2007 withdrawal of British troops from security duties in Northern Ireland.

"The Troubles" began in the late 1960s and survive today in a legacy of mutual fear and loathing. The rate of sectarian killings had fallen to nearly zero thanks to cease-fires underpinned by IRA disarmament.