A breakaway Protestant loyalist group claimed responsibility Thursday for the New Year's Eve pub attack that killed one Catholic man and left five wounded.
But more ominous than the threat by the relatively small Loyalist Volunteer Force to continue such attacks to avenge the murder on Saturday of its leader were security sources' reports that the Wednesday shooting appeared to be the work of men who until recently were aligned with the largest loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland.Despite the claims of responsibility by the Loyalist Volunteer Force, whose leader, Billy Wright, was shot to death in prison by an Irish republican extremist, security sources insisted last night that they think the attack on the Clifton Tavern in north Belfast had been carried out by people linked to the Ulster Defense Association.
Police say they still do not know whether large segments of the association have abandoned their organization to join Wright's or have simply broken their cease-fire and are using Wright's group as a cover.
Either scenario is potentially disastrous for the peace talks that former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine is set to reconvene here Jan. 12. If attacks like Wednesday's continue, enormous pressure will be put on the Irish Republican Army to abandon its cease-fire, authorities say.
According to police and witnesses, two masked men entered the doorway of the pub at about 9 p.m. and sprayed the crowd with automatic gunfire. A man who was changing his tire outside said the gunmen menaced him as they approached the entrance but did not shoot him, apparently because they did not want to give customers time to flee or take cover.
A local resident, Edward Trainor, 31, who was in the doorway when the gunmen burst in, was killed. Neighbors said he usually drank at another pub and had gone to the Clifton Tavern with his girlfriend to meet a friend.
Police recovered the stolen car used in the attack a short distance away in a loyalist area. The car had been taken from a family that had been held hostage in a part of the Shankill section of West Belfast controlled by the Ulster Defense Association, police said.