PSNI fear ‘open warfare’ between loyalist factions
With various factions battling for control in greater Belfast area, security chiefs warned there could be further bloodshed after a new outbreak of tit-for-tat attacks left one man dead.
A senior member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was wounded in the face on Monday night in an apparent retaliation, and may have survived because the gun jammed.
Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan said last night: “There is a danger of open warfare.”
Earlier, hundreds of loyalists from all sides attended the funeral in Holywood, Co Down of Stephen Warnock, 35, a drugs dealer, who was shot dead at the wheel of his BMW car last Friday. It was disrupted by a bomb hoax, but passed off without incident.
Mourners included feared west Belfast paramilitary boss Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair, a UDA associate of Jim Gray, the organisation’s east Belfast commander who was shot late on Monday night in revenge for the Warnock murder.
He was ambushed outside the home of one of Warnock’s brothers - Tommy - and just hours later the home of another brother was hit with gunfire. Nobody was injured.
Loyalists said last night that they were attempting to calm the situation and confirmed the police belief it was not a feud between loyalist organisations, but a power struggle between individuals.
Police patrols in Belfast and north Down have been increased as part of the security measures to try and prevent this fall-out escalating.
A feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the UDA on the streets of the city between August and December 2000 left seven men dead.
Stephen Warnock a former UVF man, once questioned about the murder of a nephew of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, moved over to the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
Assistant Chief Constable McQuillan said his officers were doing all they could. But he warned: “The whole thing is falling apart, and unless they get it stabilised some people will be out seeking revenge. Mr Gray’s condition in hospital last night was stable.
Sinn Féin warned nationalists could also come into the firing line. Three Catholics were wounded in a drive-by shooting on the Antrim Road, Belfast, last Saturday, apparently in reprisal for an attempt on the life a day earlier of Davy Mahood, a community worker with the Ulster Political Research Group which advises the UDA.
Republicans were blamed after Mr Mahood claimed the gunman’s weapon jammed, but police last night insisted they did not know who was responsible.
Gerry Kelly, a north Belfast member of Sinn Féin at the Assembly said: “The concern is of course that in the past loyalist feuds, turf wars and drugs’ disputes have always end with the guns turned on the nationalist community.”
Stephen Warnock and a second man were questioned by detectives about the murder of Terry Enright, 28, a Catholic father-of-two and nephew of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in l998. Nobody has been charged with the murder.
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