Loyalist shot dead in new feud

A top loyalist was shot dead today as a new paramilitary feud erupted on the streets of Belfast.

Brian Stewart, 34, was gunned down as he drove to work at an industrial estate in the east of the city.

The victim, from Holywood, Co Down, was a senior member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, sources revealed.

His murder was blamed on the Ulster Volunteer Force, a rival organisation locked in a vicious turf war. It was the group’s third killing in six months.

As police chiefs attempted to keep a lid on simmering tensions, loyalist sources warned the violence would only get worse.

One said: “It’s the nature of the beast. This is madness but inevitable.”

The gunmen struck days after bullets sprayed a UVF man’s home on the Ballybeen estate on the outskirts of east Belfast.

That attack was linked to an earlier incident when shots were fired at the house where relatives of another murdered LVF chief, Stephen Warnock, live.

Death threats were also sent to leading UVF men across Belfast and north Down as the festering divisions developed.

Hatred between the two organisations stretches back to 1996 when notorious terror chief Billy “King Rat” Wright was expelled from the UVF.

Wright, who was later murdered inside the Maze Prison, set up the splinter LVF group to wage a new campaign.

But when the loyalists’ guns were not targeting Catholics they have turned them on each other.

Seven men were killed during a feud between the UVF and Ulster Defence Association in 2001.

Two years later, civil war broke out within the UDA, leaving five men dead.

Truces since then have remained fragile, and with clashes increasing once again, Stewart paid the price.

He was behind the wheel of his car when he was ambushed in Montgomery Road on his way to the plumbing firm where he worked.

The gunman’s getaway car was later found burnt out close to a nearby police station.

A security source said: “This has all the hallmarks of a paramilitary-style murder.”

Stewart’s killing came amid deep UVF fury at a ceasefire watchdog’s scathing assessment of their involvement in paramilitary shootings and beatings.

The Independent Monitoring Commission report urged the authorities to punish the organisation’s political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, by withholding government funding.

PUP representatives were not available for comment tonight.

Police chiefs insisted someone must have witnessed the killers strike during a busy morning rush hour.

Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Wright said: “It’s a heinous crime, I can’t find words to describe it.

“But there are witnesses out there who can come forward and help us find who did this.”

Northern Ireland security minister Ian Pearson said: “This callous act is to be condemned by all right thinking people.

“I will be keeping in close contact with the PSNI as their investigation into this murder progresses and I would call on anyone who has information to pass it to the police.”

Ulster Unionist East Belfast MLA Michael Copeland warned there could be devastating consequences.

“We are sitting on a ticking time-bomb,” he said.

“Nobody in positions of authority within their communities appear able to recognise the symptoms, never mind offer a cure.”

Republicans expressed fear that further attacks could lead to Catholics eventually becoming targets.

Sinn Féin’s east Belfast councillor Joe O’Donnell said: “People will be nervous that this killing will mark the beginning of yet another period of internecine loyalist feuding.

“Nationalists in the area will be concerned that this sort of feuding will eventually lead to attacks on the local nationalist population, particularly as we approach the summer marching season.”