Talk, don't shoot, feuding loyalists told

With both sides under pressure from the Church and politicians to call a truce, detectives warned that the tit-for-tat campaign of gun and bomb attacks could worsen.

Chief Superintendent Phil Wright said: “How many incidents have to take place before all this settles down?”

The latest victim, Roy Green, was ambushed by opponents of Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair last night as he left a pub in south Belfast.

A man who was with him escaped unhurt. Both men had been in the Kimberley Bar in the city’s Ballynafeigh area for just a short time.

Within hours the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), which is associated with the UDA, admitted responsibility for shooting Mr Green, a former prisoner, who came from the Donegall Road area, a mile away.

It was the latest in a series of reprisal attacks after Adair was expelled from the UDA several months ago following a fall-out with the organisation’s other commanders.

Jonathan Stewart, 22, a close relative of one of Adair’s former associates, but who had no paramilitary links, was shot dead by a hooded gunman at a house party in north Belfast on St Stephen's Day.

South Belfast Ulster Unionist Assembly member Michael McGimpsey said today that dialogue was the only way to stop the feud.

There was no public support for what was going on, he said, adding: “I am appealing for both sides to find a way to talk their way through this dispute.

“Surely it is possible for both sides to find a way of talking their way through this.

“Dialogue is the only way of getting it stopped because each one of these murders begets another murder.”

The SDLP’s local assembly member, Dr Alasdair McDonnell, said there could be no justification for murder.

“We don’t care what faction the victim comes from, we don’t care what faction those who did this come from,” he said.

"We don’t accept that the victim was entitled to be gunned down like this and we don’t accept that those who did it had any right to do it.”

Dr McDonnell said it was “back to the bad old days” and urged the Chief Constable to root out those responsible regardless of who they were and which group they belonged to.

Extra police and troops have been on duty all over Belfast as part of a major surveillance operation to try to keep both sides apart.

A special team of officers has also been set up to investigate the attacks but last night’s murder clearly signalled an escalation of the feud.

Northern Ireland Office minister Des Browne and police chiefs said they were appalled.

Mr Wright said: “We’ve started the New Year in the same way we finished last year, with a man dead on the street.

“We are very concerned about the way things are going. How many incidents have to take place before all this settles down?”

Adair’s rivals insisted there was no way he could re-join the UDA, an organisation heavily involved in drugs, extortion and racketeering.

Mr Green was in his 30s, and had no connections with the UDA in the Shankill area of west Belfast, where Adair and his supporters are based, but was a member of the UDA in south Belfast, according to Adair’s friends.

Adair associate John White, who has survived at least one bomb attack on his home near Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, said: “It is unbelievable what is happening.

“I don’t know who was responsible for the death of young Stewart, but these people have attempted to murder at least seven people simply because they come or came from the Shankill. They’ve now murdered this man.

“There does not seem to be any point in talking to them. Their actions are so unbelievable, they are difficult to understand.”

Police returned to the scene of the St Stephen's Day murder today in a bid to jog memories.

They handed out leaflets and appealed for a number of people known to have been in the area at about the time of the killing to come forward.