The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the extreme breakaway group responsible for a number of sectarian murders in the North in the past year, has admitted it tried to kill a Catholic taxi driver in Co Armagh early yesterday. The driver, from a mainly Catholic firm, was attacked when he answered a call to the loyalist Parkmore estate in Craigavon. Two masked men approached his car, broke a window and pointed a gun at him. He pushed the gunman away but a petrol bomb was thrown at the car as it drove off.
In a coded statement yesterday, the LVF said it was responsible and warned "republicans to stay out of loyalist areas". There are growing concerns about the activity of the LVF which appears to be attracting extreme figures opposed to the ceasefire by the main loyalist paramilitary organisations, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force. The LVF is believed to be responsible for as many as six sectarian killings in the North since June last year when it is believed to have killed a Catholic man in Dungannon, Co Tyrone. In July last year it shot dead Catholic taxi driver, Michael McGoldrick, near Portadown, Co Armagh.
A former UDA member who is believed to have joined the LVF in Co Antrim is the main suspect in the murder of Sean Browne, the GAA official tortured and shot dead after being abducted from Bellaghy, Co Derry, in May. Two other sectarian murders have also been attributed to the LVF.
The attempted murder of the taxi driver was condemned yesterday by the SDLP and Sinn Fein.