Over 160 attacks against Catholics since July - SF

There have been more than 160 loyalist attacks on Catholics since the beginning of July, Sinn Féin has said.

There have been more than 160 loyalist attacks on Catholics since the beginning of July, Sinn Féin has said.

Publishing a dossier the party compiled over the summer, Mr Martin McGuinness said copies would be sent to the two governments. The British, he said, had a duty "to explain the role of their agents inside the loyalists paramilitaries responsible for this campaign", while the Irish Government had a duty to protect Irish citizens.

The dossier details each incident and provides details on some 54 bomb attacks and 43 serious assaults and stabbings as well as other incidents.

It pointed out that schools were now being targeted, with explosive devises being left at school gates.

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Mr McGuinness added: "Sinn Féin has been aware that over the past year, intensive contacts between unionists political leaders, with UUP authority and the leaders of the various paramilitary groups have been ongoing.

"Unionist politicians should explain the insight this has given them into what is going on within these armed groups and tell us when this sustained campaign will end."

He said all politicians needed to work together to counter sectarianism.

Mr McGuinness's comments follow attacks on homes in north Belfast which the Progressive Unionist Party spokesman, Mr Billy Hutchinson, said were carried out by Catholics. Damage caused was minor but Mr Hutchinson said he was convinced the real intent was to draw Protestants into conflict.

"I think it is a strategy to try and bring loyalists or Protestants in upper Ardoyne, Glenbryn and Alliance Avenue to attack others," he said. "People in that area should be very conscious that this is someone's strategy to draw them into attacks."

In south Armagh, FAIR, a relatives' organisation, accused the IRA of setting up checkpoints near the scene of the Kingsmill massacre in which 10 Protestants died in 1976. "This IRA action is undoubtedly intended to intimidate the besieged south Armagh Protestant community by presenting them with a very poignant and deliberate threat," the organisation said.