Police in N Ireland arrest 2 more over journalist's slaying

Police in Northern Ireland arrested two more men Friday over the death of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot and killed while covering a 2019 riot in the city of Londonderry.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the men, ages 44 and 53, were arrested in the city area under the Terrorism Act.

Their arrests take the number of people charged in connection with McKee's death and related offenses to nine. Three men have already been charged with murder, while another four have been charged with rioting and associated offenses.

McKee, 29, was standing near a police officer while observing an anti-police riot in Londonderry, also known as Derry, when a bullet fired by a masked gunman struck her.

The self-claimed New IRA group, a small paramilitary group that opposes Northern Ireland's peace process, has said its members shot the journalist by accident while firing at police.

McKee was an increasingly influential journalist who had written powerfully about social issues in Northern Ireland and the area's unfinished reckoning from years of paramilitary violence carried out by Irish nationalists and supporters of remaining part of the U.K.

Her death helped spur a successful effort to get feuding politicians to revive Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, which had collapsed in 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)