Pipe bomb attack linked to sectarian feuding 23/09/2007 - 16:21:16
Loyalist paramilitaries pipe bombed a home in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim as part of an intensifying attempt to rout a rival faction, it was claimed today.
As two men were being questioned about the attack on the house, the Ulster Defence Association was urged to stop the feuding and leave the town in peace.
The latest attack came as the organisation faces growing pressure to decommission its weapons or lose £1.2m (€1.7m) in conflict transformation money planned for loyalist communities.
A 60-day deadline to disarm, set by the Northern's Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie, runs out next month.
Last night’s pipe bombing occurred in a town blighted by the fighting between mainstream UDA men and members of its South East Antrim unit, ousted for allegedly being drug dealers and criminals.
No one was injured, but the device caused minor damage to the property on Cairnhill Walk.
Police were also sent in large numbers to the town’s Marine Highway, where large crowds of loyalists had gathered.
Sources in the area claimed the attack was launched as part of the campaign to intimidate those still loyal to the rogue unit.
Unlike an earlier power-struggle in Belfast which saw deposed UDA boss Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair and his supporters flee to Scotland, no-one has quit Carrickfergus.
In July a police officer was shot and wounded after gangs on both sides clashed in the coastal town’s Castlemara estate. And since then there has been no sign of a truce.
“It just hasn’t stopped for two months. Every week there’s fights in the local bars,” one source said.
“The UDA wants to do an Adair and get rid of everyone in their way. But it must be embarrassing for the leadership because they just can’t get rid of these boys, they’re just not moving.”
Police confirmed the pipe bombing was being treated as possibly connected to the warring UDA camps.
A spokeswoman said: “Police are investigating the possibility that these incidents may be connected to ongoing tensions within the loyalist community in South East Antrim.”
And political representatives issued a direct message to the paramilitaries.
David Hilditch, the Democratic Unionist Mayor of Carrickfergus, said: “Everybody in the town is sick to the teeth of it.
“The leadership on both sides should catch themselves on and get off the back of the community in Carrickfergus.
“Tourism has taken off here, it’s a little piece of heaven down here and it’s a great place to live and work.
“But these people are dragging the community down. Innocent people are being brought into it.
“Even I got my car taken apart at a checkpoint. It was searched like something from the 1970s or 80s.”
