Major UDA rift as 'Mad Dog' Adair dumped by terror group leadership

FEARED loyalist chief Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair has been dumped by the leadership of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association, it was claimed last night.

The organisation said: "He is no longer acceptable in our organisation." A statement appeared to confirm growing suspicions of a major rift inside the largest of the Protestant terror groups following a shooting of a major drugs dealer and rival in the North.

Adair, the UDA's west Belfast commander, was accused last night of acting as an "agent provocateur" between his organisation and the splinter Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). Stephen Warnock, 35, was shot dead at the wheel of his BMW in Newtownards, Co Down, earlier this month.

Later, the UDA's east Belfast commander, Jim Gray, was shot in the face in an apparent reprisal attack, heightening fears of an all-out shooting war between factions. A UDA statement last night insisted none of its members had any part in the Warnock shooting.

It added: "It has since come to light that certain people have been acting as agent provocateurs between the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force to capitalise on these events for their own purpose. As a result of ongoing investigations, the present brigadier of west Belfast is no longer acceptable in our organisation."

Close associates of Adair insisted last night, however, that he retained the full support of his men in west Belfast.

John White of the Ulster Political Research Group, and a close friend of the top UDA man said: "The statement is a complete surprise. The leadership of the UDA in west Belfast has a strategy for the future. That strategy has been endorsed by the west Belfast leadership and they will continue to adhere to that.

"The leader within west Belfast (Adair) has the full support of not only the leadership by rank-and-file membership.