The North's Chief Constable said an intensive PSNI operation saved lives in the lower Shankill area yesterday following the routing of the remains of Johnny Adair's so-called C Company by the mainstream UDA.
Mr Hugh Orde was addressing a public session of the Policing Board and fielding questions on the operation - which he oversaw - and which involved special police units and senior police command with British army support.
He said the violence was not limited to west Belfast and that other police operations also helped keep the lid on what he called loyalist "fallout" in Larne and Carrickfergus, both Co Antrim.
He said police deployment was at maximum and would remain so over the weekend and he commended them for "outstanding and dangerous work".
He told of the escorting of up to 20 people from the area to a ferry terminal in the face of a paramilitary assault which he likened to a "Mafia feud".
Mr Orde added that the removal of Adair's wife, Gina; his close associate, Mr John White, and other prominent members of C Company "may have some calming effect".
In answer to close questioning from Mr Fred Cobain, an Ulster Unionist, Mr Orde spoke of the events overnight as the culmination of the loyalist feud which stemmed from the killing of Mr Stephen Warnock in September and which has claimed another five lives since along with 17 attempted murders, seven shooting incidents, two hoax bombs, two blast bombs, four pipe bomb attacks and a petrol bomb attack.
He said 39 arrests had been made and 20 people had been charged and that these were evidence of the disruption to UDA activity caused by the PSNI.
Mr Orde admitted the police were surprised by the murder of Mr John Gregg and Mr Robert Carson last Saturday, adding that he suspected violence to come from "the other side".
He also confessed the PSNI could only help contain the situation, it could not solve the underlying problem.
The loyalist feud is a massive drain on police resources, the board was told. Some 70 detectives are working on it, about one third of the total available.
Political representatives stressed that the threat to the public remained despite the convulsions within the UDA.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said poor political representation had helped fuel violence in loyalist working class areas.
"I am not referring here to the political parties closely associated with some paramilitaries," he said. "I am thinking of some of the unionist leadership which over the last few years has emphasised only negativity, that it kept on drumming into people."
He was criticised by Mr Sammy Wilson of the DUP, who accused him of making a "ludicrous allegation". He said: "Mr Trimble seems to forget that those who are involved in this feud used to be his political allies in the peace process."
Sinn Féin also criticised unionist political leadership in working class areas of Belfast. Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly said: "Action is needed from the unionist parties to confront the paramilitary gangs which are running large parts of loyalist working class Belfast. "Every effort needs to be made in the coming days to ensure that this feud does not end like previous loyalist feuds with the killing of Catholics." Mr Alban Maginness of the SDLP agreed that Catholics could become "targets of loyalist violence".