Fears are growing of an all-out feud between the UDA and the UVF after a weekend of violence in loyalist areas of Belfast. Seven people were injured in two gun attacks on a pub in the Shankill Road and a dozen houses were attacked.
In one of the most serious incidents, a house next door to Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party - the UVF's political wing - was riddled with bullets.
Sixteen shots were fired into the house in Ambleside Street, off the Shankill. The family were out at the time.
The home of the veteran former UVF leader, Mr Gusty Spence, was also attacked.
The UDA is believed to have been responsible for the incidents, although there are reports that Loyalist Volunteer Force activists were also involved.
Mr Hutchinson claimed UDA and LVF members were "running amok" and it was only a matter of time before somebody was killed.
The Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA's political wing, appealed for calm, but blamed the UVF for starting the violence. Ulster Unionist councillor Mr Chris McGimpsey said he understood tensions were running high between the paramilitary groups.
He said the violence must end before the loyalist community tore itself apart.
The disturbances followed a huge rally in the Shankill on Saturday afternoon during which the former UDA commander, Mr Johnny Adair, and the recently released UDA prisoner, Mr Michael Stone, embraced on the platform and gave a joint salute to the crowd.
Minutes later, six masked men and women appeared on stage against a backdrop of Tina Turner's Simply the Best. They fired a volley of shots in the air to mass applause. A British army helicopter hovered overhead. There was no RUC presence at the rally.
Thousands of people took part in the demonstration, including hundreds of masked men wearing berets, sunglasses and paramilitary-style uniforms. Loyalist wall murals were later unveiled.
Mr John White of the UDP, the UDA's political wing, said trouble started as the parade passed the Rex Bar on the Shan kill Road, where well-known UVF men are among the clientele.
Mr White said UVF men outside the bar attacked the parade, injuring a bandsman with a broken glass. Eyewitnesses say a 300-strong crowd then broke away from the parade and ran back towards the Rex.
Windows were smashed and at least six shots fired into the bar by up to three gunmen. It is understood the gunmen were not masked. Photographers and camera crews were forced to hand over footage to the crowd.
Three men and a woman were injured in the shooting. One man underwent surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital. His condition is not life threatening. The other three sustained minor injuries.
On Saturday night UDA gunmen again opened fire on a crowd outside the bar which included Mr Hutchinson. Three people sustained minor injuries.
In north Belfast, a large crowd attacked the Cavehill Inn on the Cavehill Road. Around a dozen houses in the Shankill area were attacked. The occupants in some were ordered out while their homes were ransacked. Some were then set on fire.
Mr Hutchinson said: "It is all very sinister and very calculated. They seem to be attacking the homes of people who don't agree with them or have fallen out with them.
"These people are not loyalists. They are a disgrace. They are willing to kill fellow Protestants. All they want to do is support drug dealers and gangsters. They are attacking homes and the RUC does not seem to be doing much to stop it." .
Tensions have been running high between the UVF and the UDA since some UDA leaders in Belfast aligned themselves with the LVF. The UDA has carried out a series of sectarian attacks on Catholic homes and property across the North in the past week.
The organisation is widely believed to be involved in a "turf war" with the UVF. A local UDA commander in the Shankill is said to be keen for the paramilitary group to stamp its supremacy within the loyalist community.
This UDA leader has publicly voiced support for the peace process, but associates say that privately he is strongly opposed to it.