UDA appoints special unit to target Adair

The Ulster Defence Association has established a new unit to carry out attacks on colleagues who are still loyal to Johnny Adair, according to a senior loyalist source.

The source said up to six men have been appointed to "an elite force" set up to carry out operations as part of the ongoing feud between the mainstream UDA leadership and its renegade west Belfast commander, Johnny Adair.

"This is a special, hand-picked force," he said.

"It's an elite force which is more security-minded in order to prevent detection."

Adair and his close associate John White were both expelled from the UDA last year for siding with the LVF during a separate feud between the two organisations in summer 2002.