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Attacks heighten tensions

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

The victim, an 18-year-old Catholic, was attacked by men who sprang from a car on Monday. The assailants then jumped back into the car, which sped off and was later found burned out in a loyalist area.
The victim is in the hospital, where he is being treated for what doctors said are “serious” stab wounds to the stomach. Last week, two Protestant bandsmen were stabbed in the stomach and head in the same area. Four men were charged with that attack.
Sinn Fein claimed the UDA was responsible for the latest attack, timed to coincide with the buildup to next week’s political talks. The party’s Danny Lavery said: “This was a sectarian attack carried out by the UDA on a young nationalist. It was deliberate and premeditated,” he said. “Many local people were concerned that there would be a sectarian attack after the UDA mounted a show of strength in the area.
“This young man is extremely lucky to be alive today. Unionist politicians and civic and community leaders need to do more to defuse tensions throughout North Belfast, where there has been an increase in UDA activity,” Lavery added.
Tommy Kirkham of the Ulster Political Research Group, the political wing of the UDA, said there was no evidence that the paramilitary group was involved and also condemned the stabbing. Both his group and Sinn Fein appealed for dialogue to calm tensions before anyone is killed.
The attack came within days of loyalists crashing a forklift truck into a bar used mainly by Catholics in the nationalist Ardoyne area.
The truck used in the attack was driven from a construction site at a nearby loyalist estate. It was packed with slates and burning wood doused in gasoline. When it rammed the building, the steel shutter of the bar was wrecked and a fire started.
Staff and customers managed to get out without being injured but then were attacked by a mob of some 50 loyalists who began throwing missiles toward the bar.
A Sinn Fein councilor who visited the scene, Margaret McClenaghan, said it was “a well-organized plan to cause as much death and damage as they possibly could.” She said it was carried out by the UDA (who later claimed the attack using their usual cover name of Red Hand Defenders).

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