Two held over policeman car bombing
Two men have been arrested over the attempted murder of a policeman in Northern Ireland, officers said.
Police Constable Peadar Heffron lost a leg after a bomb exploded under his car in Randalstown, Co Antrim, earlier this month.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland detained a 34-year-old man in west Belfast, while a 33-year-old man was held in the north of the city.
Pc Heffron, 33, who only recently regained consciousness after the January 8 bombing, was attacked by dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.
It is understood the group responsible targeted the young officer because he is a Catholic who has risen to prominence as an Irish language specialist for the police and is captain of the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s gaelic football team.
Pc Heffron represents the changing face of a service which is steadily redressing a traditional religious imbalance in policing in Northern Ireland.
Last year he was among officers who attended the first meeting at which discussions between Policing Board officials and members of the public were conducted in the Irish language.
The recently married officer, who has served with the police for nine years, had just left his home to start work in west Belfast when the device exploded under his blue Alfa Romeo car.
He was taken to hospital for emergency treatment before being transferred to the Royal Victoria in Belfast, where he remains in a critical condition.
The attack happened two miles from the Massereene Army barracks, where two soldiers just about to leave for Afghanistan were shot dead by the Real IRA last March.
