Loyalist paramilitaries meet to avert feud
Loyalist paramilitaries have met in Belfast in an effort to prevent a bloody feud, it emerged tonight.
The leadership of the Ulster Defence Association met in north Belfast to discuss the killing of a Loyalist Volunteer Force member and the reprisal shooting of one of its senior members.
Last Friday Stephen Warnock - a senior LVF figure and leading drug dealer - was gunned down in Newtownards, Co Down.
The LVF blamed the murder on east Belfast members of the UDA.
On Monday night, the east Belfast UDA commander Jim Gray was shot in the face outside the home of a brother of Mr Warnock.
The LVF claimed responsibility for the shooting but denied it was an attack on the UDA.
Loyalist sources have indicated the attacks were linked to a row over drugs.
It is believed the LVF passed to the UDA’s inner council details of its reasons for attacking Mr Gray.
John White a spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group, which has close links to the UDA, said a series of meetings had been taking place throughout the day to prevent the violence escalating.
“I know there are intense discussions going on. My colleague Frank McCoubrey and myself have been having meetings with the UDA.
“It is a crisis situation and obviously we want to ensure there is no more violence and the issues are talked through,” he added.
