Loyalist paramilitary chiefs have formed a new unit to carry out attacks on rivals involved in a deadly internal feud, it was claimed today.
Up to six men have been drafted in by the Ulster Defence Association as its war with renegade commander Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair intensifies.
A senior loyalist source disclosed: "This is a special, hand-picked force set up to carry out operations."
Two men have been shot dead in Belfast - one on each side - in an escalating power-struggle.
Another man, one of Adair's closest associates, was shot and critically wounded in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim amid fears that the bloody dispute was set to spread throughout the North.
Four men were being questioned by police about the attack on the 37-year-old on Tuesday, when two gunmen burst into his home and opened fire.
Adair himself survived a bomb attack at his west Belfast house yesterday in the latest in a series of attempts on his life.
The blast-type device exploded just yards from his home in the hardline Lower Shankill estate.
The feared loyalist was expelled from the UDA along with his mentor John White by the organisation's five other brigadiers last September for siding with another terrorist grouping in an earlier fall-out.
Extra police and army have been drafted on to the streets of Belfast in a bid to prevent both factions killing each other.
But the murders started over the holiday period when Jonathan Stewart was assassinated in front of horrified party-goers at a house in north Belfast.
Although his family insisted he was an innocent victim, it is understood the 22-year-old was targeted because his uncle had quit Adair's notorious C Company wing.
In a revenge strike drug dealer Roy Green, 32, was gunned down outside a south Belfast pub last week.
The top loyalist - who was buried yesterday - had defied UDA commanders' orders to end his friendship with Adair.
Now the terror organisation's so-called inner council has sanctioned the formation of a small unit to co-ordinate operations across its five command areas.
"The UDA has always made it clear that an attack on one area is an attack on the organisation as a whole," one loyalist source said.
Based inside the Ulster Freedom Fighters (the UDA's military wing), he confirmed it had been set up because of the feud with former colleagues. He added: "It's an elite force which is more security minded in order to prevent detection."
PA