Five detained over fatal NI blast

The victim's partner appealed for no retaliations

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland -- Police in Northern Ireland investigating the murder of a construction worker at a military camp are questioning five people in connection with the incident.

David Caldwell was killed after picking up an explosive device at the Caw Territorial Army Camp, in Londonderry, on Thursday.

Police detained two men and a woman hours after the blast and arrested two more men on Friday.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid described the murder of the civilian worker as a "brutal and cowardly act."

Reid said violence in Northern Ireland was escalating because extreme elements of Republicanism and Loyalism wanted to destroy the peace process.

He said: "There is a myth going around that this violence is only the result of the peace process, as if it never happened before.

"The reality is that there is a lot less violence than there was 10 years ago but it is escalating at present because those extremes on both sides desperately want to kill the peace process and put themselves back centre-stage in dominating the politics by the gun."

Caldwell, 51, a father of four, died in hospital from his injuries after a booby-trapped lunchbox exploded in his hands.

His distraught partner, Mavis McFaul, appealed for no retaliation.

But a statement issued by the Red Hand Defenders, a cover name used by the Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters, threatened a "military response" to the murder.

The UFF used the phrase "measured military response" after it admitted murdering Catholic teenager Gerard Lawlor in north Belfast last week.

Thursday's explosion is thought to be the first dissident attack to have caused a death since the 1998 Omagh atrocity when the Real IRA murdered 29 people.

McFaul said: "I want no revenge for Davy's death because he wouldn't want it. I have a daughter and if they could see the families they leave behind, the heartbroken, they wouldn't do this."

An Army spokesman denounced it as a "despicable, cowardly attack".

He added: "This is a centre for medical units which provide TA personnel for peacekeeping and humanitarian tasks all over the world.

"These people are lifesavers and it's outrageous that such an incident should occur in such a place."

The device exploded at a military camp in Londonderry

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said the killing was "absolutely and totally wrong".

The Mid Ulster MP, who is also the Stormont Education Minister, added: "These attacks, whether by rejectionist loyalists or dissident republicans, are attacks on the peace process and must be condemned in the most forthright and unequivocal terms."

Local MP Gregory Campbell, who lives about a mile away from the camp where the blast occurred, drew comparisons between the blast and an attack on nearby Magilligan camp in February. (Story)

On that occassion, a 48-year-old male Ministry of Defence employee suffered serious lower body and arm injuries.

Campbell told the Press Association: "I am sure people will recall that at Magilligan camp ... an almost identical situation occurred as the one that seems to have occurred this morning, where a device was left there and a person who was an employee in the camp picked up the device and received very serious injuries as well on that occasion."