Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force may have abandoned the huge car bomb which threatened carnage at a seaside town in Northern Ireland, it emerged tonight.
As two pipe bombs were defused in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, security sources said they believed UVF men were linked to the massive device left in the town just 24 hours earlier.
"At this stage, everything points to the UVF," a source told PA News.
With that organisation's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) having two representatives at the Northern Ireland Assembly, the disclosure is another setback for the troubled peace process.
It also confirmed heightening fears of a growing terrorist threat by loyalists opposed to the Belfast Agreement.
Another Catholic family escaped unhurt when two pipe bombs exploded outside their home in Ballynahinch, Co Down.
Today's attacks brought to 129 the number mounted this year, nearly all of them by elements associated with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
The Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA's political wing, tonight emphatically denied the terror grouping had any involvement at Ballycastle where the fully primed car bomb was left as up to 100,000 people attended the Auld Lammas Fair, one of Ireland's most famous outdoor street festivals.
Mr Billy Hutchinson, one of two PUP members at Stormont, tonight refused to make any comment about the attack. "It was the second of its type mounted by the UVF in the greater north Antrim area," a source said.
Two months ago, a car bomb was found in the predominantly Catholic village of Cargan, near Ballymena. It failed to go off because of a faulty timer.
Security sources believe disaffected elements within the UVF were involved, but that the attacks did not appear to have been sanctioned at leadership level.
Police chiefs have warned that if the car bomb had detonated it would have caused a massive fireball and may have resulted in worse carnage than the 1998 Omagh atrocity when 29 people were killed in a Real IRA explosion.
The Red Hand Defenders, a cover name used by both the UDA and LVF, had claimed responsibility for planting the huge device.
But UDP chairman Mr John White insisted the UDA was not to blame.
"I don't know who these so-called Red Hand Defenders are, but I know there are individuals out there masquerading as loyalists," he said.
"The UDA collectively have said that their ceasefire is intact." The seaside town was today under new alert when one pipe bomb was discovered at the Marine Hotel and a second in the Boyd Arms pub.
The RUC district commander for the area, Superintendent John Bustard, hit out at the terrorists who he insisted were intent on murder.
He said: "Ruthless individuals have once again sought to inflict carnage on the people of Ballycastle by planting pipe bombs in two separate premises in the resort. The public should be under no illusion as to the reckless and indiscriminate nature of these attacks as the devices were concealed in such a way as to make their detection extremely difficult."
The owner of the house targeted in Ballynahinch, who did not want to be identified, blamed the UDA.
He said: "It's absolutely crazy. They aren't going to be happy until they kill a Catholic, any Catholic."
PA