London - Three more arrests were made Saturday in the hunt for the killers of two British soldiers and a policeman in Northern Ireland, police said.

The latest arrests in Armagh and near Londonderry - of men aged 41, 32 and 21 - related to the killing of two British soldiers in an attack outside Massereene barracks in county Antrim, north of Belfast, last weekend.

Police said the 41-year-old was a former member of the Irish Republican Army who was well known as a critic of Sinn Fein, the IRA's erstwhile political wing which now helps govern the British province with the Democratic Unionist Party.

Late Friday a third suspect in the killing of the policeman was arrested - a man in his mid-20s. Two males aged 17 and 37, were already being questioned over the policeman's murder.

Police constable Stephen Carroll, a Catholic, was the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998. His death also marked the first loss of an officer belonging to the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formed in 2001.

The county town of Banbridge, south of Belfast, had come to a standstill Friday as a funeral procession for Carroll, led by his widow, Kate, passed hundreds of local people.

Two separate dissident terrorist groups who split from the now disbanded Irish Republican Army (IRA) have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In a strong sign of how much things have changed in Northern Ireland since the 1998 peace agreement, Carroll's funeral was attended by two local representatives of Sinn Fein. (dpa)