A leading loyalist and a bar were the subjects of two attempted bomb attacks last night in which no one was injured.
A device, which is believed to have been a blast bomb, was thrown at the Rex bar in the lower Shankill area of Belfast yesterday around 8.30 p.m.
No one was injured in the attack on the bar, which is frequented by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force.
In August the bar was sprayed with gunfire by the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover name for the Ulster Defence Association, after a rally organised by the Ulster Democratic Party and UDA on the Shankill Road sparked an escalation of the feud between the UFF/UDA and the UVF.
Northern Assembly member Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, which has links to the UVF, said he believed the UFF was behind the attack on the bar. He said there were only four people in the bar at the time, none of whom was associated with the UVF.
The Rex was cordoned off as the security forces carried out a follow-up operation to the attack which eyewitnesses said was carried out by two men who made off in a car after the incident.
Mr Hutchinson himself was believed to be the intended target of a second attack, in which a pipe bomb was discovered by his wife outside his home on Ambleside street, off the Shankill Road.
British Army bomb officers detonated this device in a controlled explosion.
Meanwhile, in another incident in the Shankill area a house was attacked in Danube Street. A woman and a two-week-old baby were inside at the time.
Windows were smashed by what witnesses described as a crowd of about 50 to 60 people carrying baseball bats. The owners of the house blamed the UVF for the attack.
Two men, aged 24 and 27, were taken to hospital after being shot in the legs in a paramilitary-style attack at Newtownabbey, Co Antrim last night. The incident occurred at Derrycoole Way, Newtownabbey shortly before 8.30 pm.