British soldiers returned to the streets of Belfast last night as the UDA-UVF feud seriously escalated with the killing of two men in the city earlier in the day. The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, returned to Belfast from holidays and urged an immediate halt to the violence.
Mr Mandelson met an Ulster Unionist delegation last night and said he would be holding urgent talks with the political representatives of both loyalist paramilitary groups. He said it was too early to say whether they had breached their ceasefires, but he would not hesitate to act if advised that they had done so.
He would consider revoking the licence of any former paramilitary prisoners deemed to have broken the terms of their release. There have been increasing demands that the UDA Shankill commander, Johnny Adair, be returned to jail. Mr Mandelson denounced the feud as "squalid, murderous gang warfare".
Apart from three days during last month's Drumcree crisis, it is the first time British soldiers have been on the streets of Belfast in two years.
Although no organisation has admitted responsibility, both security and loyalist sources have blamed the UVF for yesterday's killing of Mr Jackie Coulter and Mr Bobby Mahood. The two men had just got into a car after leaving a bookmaker's shop on the Crumlin Road. They were confronted by a gunman who fired eight shots into the vehicle.
Mr Coulter, who had UDA connections and was an associate of Adair, died immediately. Mr Mahood was wounded in the stomach and died in hospital. Loyalist sources said he had UVF connections but opposed the Belfast Agreement and the policies of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party.
Shortly after the killings, shots were fired at the Shankill offices of a group which helps UDA prisoners. Retaliation followed immediately - a PUP premises on the Shankill was set on fire and rival groups of armed paramilitaries drove around the area.
Before the shootings, the UDA's political wing, the Ulster Democratic Party, had called for mediation to end the feud. However, UDP spokesman Mr John White last night said the double killings had dramatically worsened the situation. He said the UVF had disgraced loyalism.
PUP Assembly member Mr Billy Hutchinson described the killings as "a tragedy" but refused to condemn them. Referring to weekend UDA gun attacks on a bar frequented by UVF activists, he said: "Did they actually think when they carried out gun attacks against people, that people were going to sit back and not do something about it?"
Mainstream unionist politicians have appealed for calm. Local Ulster Unionist councillor Mr Chris McGimpsey said: "We now have body bags. Both sides have to step back. All they are doing is destroying their own community."
UUP councillor Mr Jim Rodgers said: "Republicans must be laughing to see Protestant killing Protestant. This has to stop."
The DUP Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Sammy Wilson, said the violence showed the true nature of the loyalist paramilitary groups and their political representatives who fervently voiced support for the peace process.
The Alliance Party said there was a perception that certain loyalists were "untouchable by the law". An SDLP Assembly member, Mr Alban Maginness, demanded an end to the violence and urged nationalists to remain calm but vigilant. Mr Martin Mc Guinness said Sinn Fein took no pleasure in loyalists feuding and called on them "to get their act together and wise up".