A Northern Ireland police officer was shot dead while on patrol Monday in Craigavon, a town southwest of Belfast, reports from Belfast said.

The police officer was on a mission to investigate suspicious activities in Craigavon, a religiously divided town, when the unit came under fire.

The officer died after being sent to hospital, police said.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the killing.

Two days earlier, the dissident Real IRA faction shot dead two British soldiers on an army base in Antrim, west of Belfast, and injured another two soldiers and two pizza delivery men.

The incident raised fears that dissident republicans are bringing violence back to the streets of Northern Ireland.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2009)