Irish Leader Condemns Killings

3 Suspects Arrested In Shooting Deaths Of British Soldiers

LIMERICK, Ireland -- Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the recent killings of two British soldiers and a police officer in Northern Ireland were carried out by "a few fools" and "psychopaths" whose actions do not threaten peace in the province.

"People have made it very clear there is no support for this," Cowen said in an interview Friday. "This is a small number of very misguided, criminal people who obviously think it's a good idea to shoot people."

Speaking ahead of a trip, starting today, to the United States, where he will meet with President Obama at the White House, Cowen said Northern Ireland is a "totally transformed" province where violence is no longer tolerated.

"This has nothing to do with politics," he said. "The reforms that we've seen bedded down in Northern Ireland, the political developments we've seen there over the last 11 or 12 years, have proven resilient against all attacks."

Cowen, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Protestant and Catholic leaders in the province have condemned the killings -- the first such slayings in a decade.

Police in Northern Ireland said Saturday that they have arrested three men in connection with the killings of the soldiers, who were gunned down as they collected a pizza delivery at an army base north of Belfast.

The suspects, ages 41, 32 and 21, were arrested in raids on two locations early Saturday, according to police, who did not identify the men. But the BBC and other British media outlets reported that one of the men is Colin Duffy, 41, an Irish Republican Army dissident who has been critical of the group's political wing, Sinn Fein, and its support for the province's police.

Duffy's arrest in the town of Lurgan triggered rioting among youths, who threw gasoline bombs at police. No injuries were reported.

Duffy was convicted in 1993 of murdering a British soldier, but the case against him was dismissed on appeal when a key witness against him turned out to be a loyalist paramilitary soldier. In 1997, Duffy was charged with killing two police officers, but the charges were dropped.

His attorney, Rosemary Nelson, was killed in a car bombing in 1999. Her death is the subject of an ongoing investigation into collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups.

Police also have arrested three suspects in the killing of police officer Stephen Carroll, whose funeral Friday drew hundreds of Catholic and Protestant mourners in a defiant show of unity.

The killings were claimed by groups that broke from the IRA, which renounced violence after three decades of sectarian strife.