London - The funeral of a 23-year-old British soldier shot dead by terrorists in Northern Ireland earlier this month took place in his home city of Birmingham on Wednesday.

Sapper Mark Quinsey was one of two soldiers gunned down outside Massereene army barracks north of Belfast, Northern Ireland, on March 7.

He and his colleague, Patrick Azimkar, from London, were the first British soldiers to die in a terrorist attack in the British province since the signing of the 1998 peace agreement.

They were killed in an ambush as they were taking a pizza delivery at the barracks gate.

Both had been due to leave for deployment in Afghanistan on the night of their death. Azimkar will be buried on Friday.

The Real IRA, a splinter group of the now disbanded Irish Republican Army (IRA), has claimed responsibility for the murder.

Just 48 hours later, another dissident group, the Continuity IRA, said they shot dead a policeman in Craigavon, in the south of Northern Ireland.

The three murders have sparked a wave of revulsion in Northern Ireland, where people have made clear they reject a return of terrorism and want to continue on the path of peace.

The British army completed its withdrawal from Northern Ireland in 2007, handing over security to the police under the terms of the peace agreement.

British soldiers remaining in a handful of barracks in Northern Ireland are there for training and deployment in overseas conflicts, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. (dpa)