An Ulster Unionist councillor has said he believes a gun attack on a taxi office in north Belfast could be linked to fighting between loyalist groups. A man armed with a shotgun entered the premises in Sunningdale Gardens, in the Ballysillan area, early yesterday and fired a shot. No one was injured.
The RUC said it had not established a motive. However, local UUP councillor Mr Nelson McCausland said there had been an increase in factional violence in loyalist parts of the area in recent weeks. "It is possible that the shotgun attack on the taxi office may be associated with this feud." He appealed to both sides to stop.
The BBC has quoted security sources as saying the INLA could have smuggled a gun into the Maze prison, Co Antrim, in an attempt to kill UDA prisoner Johnny Adair. Last weekend, the RUC informed Adair of a threat against his life from dissident republicans.
The former UDA leader in west Belfast is being held in a segregated loyalist block but has been advised to be careful while in other parts of the jail. The INLA shot dead LVF leader Billy Wright in the Maze last Christmas.