Security forces in the North have said that weapons seized on the Shankill Road in Belfast last night and today suggested that feuding Loyalists may be rearming. They said that the six weapons were linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force and were loaded and ready for use. These included an Uzi sub machine gun, an assault rifle and a brand new gun. In a separate find, bomb-making equipment, including one and a half kilos of commercial explosive and a detonator cord, was found in the Shankill area. This is being linked to the Ulster Freedom Fighters, with which the UVF is feuding.
The Shankill Road area of Belfast is said to be tense this evening as Ulster Unionist security spokesman Ken Maginnis warned of further violence following the funeral this afternoon of one of the victims of the loyalist paramilitary feud. Several hundred people gathered earlier for the funeral of father-of-two, Bobby Mahood. He was shot dead on the Crumlin Road on Monday. The UVF has been blamed for his death and the murder of Jackie Coulter as part of a feud with the UFF.
Last night, the faction rivalry claimed its third victim within a week, 22-year-old Sam Rocket, who was connected to the UVF, died after he was shot at his home. Clergymen in North Belfast have been meeting to try to work out a plan to restore calm. The killing of Mr Rocket follows a week of violence between rival Loyalist paramilitary factions and the re-imprisonment of the UFF leader, Johnny Adair.
Mr Rocket was gunned down just a few hundred yards from the scene of a double murder by the UVF on Monday. It is believed he was in the living room of his house with his girlfriend and young daughter when the shooting happened. He died in hospital a short time later. His family was reportedly expelled from the Ulster Defence Association, aligned to the UFF, in the mid-1990s and had switched allegiance to the rival UVF. On RTÉ's Morning Ireland, John White of the UDP, which is linked to the UDA, said he believed more violence was inevitable.
A brother of Mr Rocket appeared in court in Belfast today on a firearms charge. Arthur Paul Rocket was charged with possessing a loaded revolver and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Thirty-three-year-old Rocket was remanded in custody. His solicitor said an application would be made in the High Court tomorrow for compassionate bail to enable Rocket to attend his brother's funeral on Saturday. At the same court, another man faced a separate firearms charge in relation to a haul of guns found in the Shankill area earlier this week. Newell Coll, a 26-year-old plastics worker, from Brookmount Street, was charged with possessing three handguns, a stengun, three magazines and over 600 rounds of ammunition alleged to have been found in his home. A detective said that when Coll was charged he replied, "Not guilty."
Six men were arrested last night in a security operation in the Shankill Road. An RUC spokesman said that officers made the arrests following a chase on Canmore Street. Police said that they found a number of firearms and ammunition in follow-up searches.
