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BELFAST- A police officer has been shot dead while on patrol in Northern Ireland, two days after the fatal shooting of two British soldiers, local political sources told AFP.
The officer was shot in the head in Craigavon in County Armagh after the death of two British soldiers at the Massereene Barracks in Antrim, northwest of Belfast, which has raised fears for the stability of the peace process.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed that an officer had been injured but did not confirm the death. The officer was on a callout to Lismore Manor, a republican area of Craigavon, when the attack took place as he and a colleague were sitting in a car, the sources said.
The shooting of the soldiers at the Massereene Barracks late Saturday was the first of its kind in 12 years. Peace has largely returned to Northern Ireland, plagued by decades of sectarian violence which killed thousands of people, since a peace accord in 1998.
But the latest upsurge of violence has prompted fears of a step-change towards instability and has prompted politicians to insist that Northern Ireland's devolved power-sharing government will not be derailed. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday on a visit to Northern Ireland that the peace process was 'unshakeable'.
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