British troops were back on the streets of another Northern Ireland town tonight as security chiefs fought to combat the growing campaign of loyalist sectarian bomb attacks on Catholic homes.
Security was stepped up in Limavady, Co Derry, with both the military patrolling and extra police patrols.
In recent days security has been stepped up in north Belfast, the Waterside area of Derry, Larne, Co Antrim and Coleraine, Co Derry.
The local RUC commander in Limavady, Superintendent Noel McClenaghan, said: "The increased security measures will be concentrated mainly on residential areas in order to thwart and apprehend those responsible for carrying out these evil acts."
The continuing attacks have been blamed on rogue elements of the Ulster Defence Association.
The Presbyterian Church Moderator in Northern Ireland, Dr Trevor Morrow, lashed out at those responsible describing their actions as "a moral outrage".
Northern Ireland Security Minister Adam Ingram issued a thinly-veiled warning to loyalist paramilitaries about the continuing attacks in the House of Commons yesterday.
He said the Government was considering whether so-called "hate crime" law could be tailored for sectarian crimes in Northern Ireland.
The attacks continued into the early hours with the petrol bombing of the home of a couple and their nine children in Co Tyrone. The device smashed into the front door of the house at Castlecaufield, outside Dungannon starting a fire.
In another attack in east Belfast a nail bomb shattered a window in a pensioners' sheltered dwelling on the Newtownards Road.
Sinn Fein said the target of the attack had been the local Catholic chapel.
Meanwhile the search for the seat of an explosion reported close to the main Belfast-Dublin railway line outside Newry, Co Down, three days ago continued.
PA