Police quiz republican over murder of two boy soldiers in 1977

COPS are quizzing a republican over the IRA ambush murders of two British squaddies three decades ago.

The 54-year-old was arrested in west Belfast by PSNI murder squad detectives yesterday morning during a planned swoop.

He was taken to the serious crime suite in Antrim for questioning and can be held for up 48 hours under the Terrorism Act

Teenage Infantry men Private Michael Harrison and Pte Richard Turnbull were cut down in a hail of IRA gunfire in Belfast on June 29, 1977.

The men died after their British Army vehicles came were raked with automatic rounds in North Howard Street during a deadly IRA ambush in west Belfast.

Pte Harrison, 19,  was from the town of Dinnington in South Yorkshire while.

And 18-year-old Pte Turnbull hailed from North Yorkshire.

They were just two days into a four-month tour of duty in Northern Ireland when a waiting IRA gang sprung a lethal trap.

A regimental padre and an officer cheated death in the attack.

Six people were charged in the wake of the shooting, with one sentenced to life for murder.