Ten men were last night being questioned about the Omagh bombing by detectives on both sides of the Border. They include the independent republican councillor and chairman of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, Mr Francie Mackey.
Six of those arrested were being questioned by the RUC at Strand Road Barracks, Derry. Three others were being held in Monaghan. Another two men held in Carrickmacross were released without charge yesterday. It is understood that they are a father and son from Hackballscross.
The tenth man was arrested by gardai in Co Louth last night. The 35-year-old man is originally from Northern Ireland, but has been living in Dundalk for a number of years. He was arrested at about 8 p.m. under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and has been taken to Carrickmacross Garda station.
Mr Mackey (44) was arrested at about 8 a.m. yesterday in the grounds of Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital in Omagh, where he works as a psychiatric nurse. He had just finished a night shift. A spokesman for the Sperrin and Lakeland Trust, which manages the hospital, said: "It is our policy not to comment on individual members of staff."
Mr Mackey resigned from Sinn Fein last year in protest at the political direction of the party's leadership. His home in the village of Mountfield, on the outskirts of Omagh, was raided yesterday. Police sources on both sides of the Border described all the arrests as "significant".
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement, in a statement, expressed confidence that Mr Mackey would be released and claimed that the arrests were aimed at suppressing opposition to the Belfast Agreement.
The group's vice-chairwoman, Ms Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, said: "This is just the latest in an ongoing campaign by both governments and their allies to silence opposition to the Stormont deal. The cynical timing of these arrests cannot be overlooked and can only be seen as a convenient diversion from the decommissioning issue and the political turmoil Bertie Ahern now finds himself in."
The RUC arrested three more men in the North yesterday. A police spokesman refused to say where the arrests took place, but reports suggested that they were in Crossmaglen and Cullaville, Co Armagh, and that houses and other property in the area were searched in a security operation by police and British soldiers.
The RUC said that two men arrested on Sunday were still being questioned. A spokesman declined to say where the men had been arrested, but reports suggested that they were from south Armagh. The six men being questioned in the North can be held for seven days.
The three people still being held in Monaghan include a man in his 30s, currently on bail, who is facing charges in relation to a "Real IRA" bombing, and a man in his 40s who has a previous paramilitary conviction.
Mr Laurence Rush, whose wife, Libby, was killed in the Omagh bombing, said that he longed for the day when those responsible were jailed. "I want a just vengeance. God allows me a vengeance. He allows me to feel like this because my wife of 40 years contributed to this country by having three fine children. These people [Real IRA] destroyed that".