Loyalist feud: Three-year-old girl was in home during attack - Nesbitt

A three-year-old girl was inside a property targeted as part of a feud between drug gangs in County Down, an assembly member has said.

Mike Nesbitt said the toddler was in a home that was attacked on Tuesday.

There have been 11 attacks which have been linked to a dispute between rival factions previously linked to the Ulster Defence Association ( UDA).

Police said a pipe bomb was thrown at one property, with occupants, including four children, inside.

There have been attacks in Bangor, Newtownards, Donaghadee and Ballywalter.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Supt Johnston McDowell said the attacks were "completely unacceptable, incredibly reckless and place our communities at grave risk".

"We are intent on bringing them to a complete stop, arresting the perpetrators and placing them before the courts," he added.

Supt McDowell later said the PSNI had arrested four men in Newtownards after a group of individuals, some of whom were masked, gathered at the courthouse in Regent Street on Thursday morning.

The men later made their way to Weavers Grange.

Supt McDowell said the arrests brought the total number of people apprehended by police to 10.

The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) condemned the groups involved in the violence as "competing drug cartels".

There has been a spate of attacks across north Down and Ards in recent days

On Wednesday night, a flat in Beechfield Drive, Donaghadee, was petrol bombed shortly before 21:50 BST.

The fire was extinguished and no-one was in the property at the time of the attack.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Mr Nesbitt, who is an Ulster Unionist Party assembly member said: "I know nobody was in the house that was petrol bombed in Donaghadee last night, but on Tuesday there was a three-year-old girl in the house that was attacked by these criminals.

"And I'm also told that what was described as an elderly woman had her window put in, in a case of mistaken identity."

Regent House School - a grammar school in Newtownards - closed all of its access gates after what the principal described to parents as "some problems" in the town.

However, all school activities have been continuing as normal and staff have manned the main gate for anyone who has needed access.

Strangford assembly member Mike Nesbitt said innocent people are getting caught up in the violence

"That's one of the concerns about taking violence to the streets - that somebody that has nothing to do with drug dealing and criminality will get hurt," he added.

Democratic Unionist Party MP for Strangford, Jim Shannon, told the BBC's Evening Extra programme that the violence in the area was "spreading like a virus" and reiterated that innocent bystanders had been mistakenly targeted.

"We condemn wholeheartedly and fully any criminality or terrorism or attacks on properties that are taking place across Ards," he said.

There has been a large police presence in Newtownards and north Down.

Stephen Farry, the Alliance Party MP for North Down those involved were "unreformed criminals".

"We need a criminal justice response to this situation," he said.

'Rival factions'

The PSNI said on Thursday that homes had been attacked "by rival factions previously linked to the UDA".

Supt McDowell said the police had put in place a robust operation to investigate the attacks and deter further violence.

"Along with our high-visibility patrols, we are working closely with our colleagues in the Paramilitary Crime Task Force who are helping ensure that the full range of policing tactics are available to counter the threat posed by these gangs," he added.

Meanwhile, the LCC said on Thursday it did not consider the feuding factions as loyalists.

"We urge everyone to reject their activity and, in particular, we ask parents to ensure their children are not being used to convey illegal substances," the organisation said in a statement.

The LCC was set up in 2015 as a means to help bring an end to loyalist paramilitarism.

It is not a proscribed organisation and is said to represent a range of individuals and views from within the Protestant/unionist/loyalist community.

What is the UDA?

The Ulster Defence Association, formed in 1971, had tens of thousands of members at its peak.

It killed hundreds of people during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and often claimed responsibility for sectarian murders using the cover name the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF).

The UDA remained a legal organisation until it was banned in August 1992.

Notorious attacks by the UFF included the shooting dead of five Catholics at a Belfast bookmakers in 1992 and the Greysteel massacre the following year.

The South East Antrim Ulster Defence Association is a standalone faction of the UDA and was once part of its inner council.

Security sources have previously said that with more than 2,000 members, it is one of Northern Ireland's largest paramilitary gangs.

According to a previous MI5-police intelligence assessment, the South East Antrim UDA has access to arms and is heavily involved in drugs supply, community coercion, intimidation and other criminality.

Read more here.

Week of unrest

On Tuesday, a house was petrol bombed in Ballyferris Walk, Bangor.

Officers then received a report of damage to a property in Glenbrook Road in Newtownards.

At least two men threw a brick through the front window and poured petrol on to the driveway, the PSNI said.

There was also a petrol bomb attack at a block of flats in Donaghadee Road, Newtownards.

A spate of attacks in north Down and Ards have been linked to a feud between rival factions of the UDA

On Monday, police said eight houses had been attacked since last Wednesday many of which were occupied.

Officers blamed those incidents on rival drug gangs "operating under the banner of the Ulster Defence Association".

On Tuesday the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland was raised from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.

The move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, follows a rise in dissident republican activity, including a recent gun attack on a top police officer.

The flare-up in violence from loyalist paramilitaries in County Down over the past week is not related to the change to the threat level.