Irish police arrest five in N. Irish dissident probe

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish police arrested five men on Sunday as part of an investigation into dissident Republican militants active in Northern Ireland.

Police said in a statement they had carried out two arrest operations, one in Dundalk and one in Ardee in County Louth, just south of the border with Northern Ireland.

Officers stopped and searched a car in Dundalk, recovering a firearm and balaclava. Two men were arrested and were now being held in Dundalk police station.

In Ardee, a second car was stopped, in which ammunition and a balaclava were found. Police said the three men arrested were being held in Drogheda and Balbriggan police stations.

A 1998 peace agreement largely ended three decades of violence between predominantly Catholic groups who want a united Ireland and mainly Protestant unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

But militant splinter groups have stepped up attacks recently. On Saturday security forces in Northern Ireland defused a bomb which fell off a policewoman's car, the third bomb targeting police or a soldier in the province in less than a week.

Northern Irish police have strengthened their street presence due to increased paramilitary attacks and they have also been getting help from police in the Irish Republic.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by David Stamp)