The RUC is investigating another spate of violent incident in the North overnight. Three men were injured in gun attacks in Belfast, Larne and Lisburn and a house in Larne was petrol bombed. Windows were smashed in around 20 houses and cars in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, and around five properties in nearby Greenisland were also damaged.
A house in the Seacourt area of Larne, County Antrim, was completely destroyed during a petrol bomb attack. Police say that around 20 people were involved in the incident at Brittania Crescent shortly after 9.30pm. There was no one in the house at the time. In a second related incident in Larne, a man received hospital treatment for a pellet wound after a shotgun was fired into a house at Seacliffe Road.
In other incidents, a 17-year-old youth was shot in the ankles in a paramilitary style attack in the Poleglass area on the western outskirts of Belfast. He was taken from his house to an area at the rear of Woodside Close by three or four men at around 8pm. In Lisburn, a man received a shotgun wound to the leg after an incident around 10pm. The attack is believed to have taken place in the Church Lane area.
11-year-old Charlene Daly is still seriously ill in hospital today with a bullet in her back following a gun attack in her home in Coleraine, County Derry yesterday. The UVF has been blamed for the attack which is thought to have been aimed at her father, a former UDA prisoner.
Attempts at mediation between the rival UVF and UDA have been made since the killing last week of three Belfast men. However, a source close to the UDA leadership has claimed that the attack on the Daly family could damage those efforts. The feeling in the North is that there is worse violence to come. More than 40 families have been driven out of their homes in the Shankill area of Belfast.
It is also thought that Saturday’s planned march to commemorate UVF man Brian Robinson may further heighten tensions. 2,000 people are expected to turn out on the Shankill road for the commemoration.
