The RUC Chief Constable was yesterday under growing pressure to clarify the state of the UDA ceasefire as overnight attacks brought to 44 the number of loyalist pipe-bombings in five weeks.
Mr Alex Attwood of the SDLP said his party was requesting a "full, frank and forthright political and security assessment" on the violence from the Northern Secretary and Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
In the most recent incident a 53-year-old Catholic workman on a building site in Moygashel, Co Tyrone, suffered facial injuries when a device attached to his work vehicle detonated as he tried to climb inside at around 8.20 a.m. yesterday.
The Ulster Unionist MLA, Ms Joan Carson, said she was angered by the attack, which was "deliberately designed to cause death and serious injury".
It followed three overnight pipe bombings on Catholic homes and a security alert on the Belfast-to-Dublin railway line at Newry after residents reported an explosion at 10 p.m. on Wednesday. Devices also exploded outside two Catholic homes in Derry at around 10.15 p.m. on Wednesday. A firework with nails attached was thrown at a house in Gortnasoar, Dungannon around midnight yesterday. No one was injured.
Ms Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Fein said the UDA was responsible for the violence. "The attacks have occurred nightly since the beginning of the year, clearly as part of an anti-nationalist pogrom, which is constantly being widened out to other areas throughout the six counties," she said.
A senior loyalist figure yesterday said he believed an announcement confirming the UDA was in breach of its ceasefire could come from Sir Ronnie within days.
He said it appeared the attacks were now seen as "popular sport" and no will existed within the UDA to "shut them down". Other sources confirmed the authorities could be on the verge of issuing a "yellow card" to those behind some of the attacks.