Nationalist politicians have called on the Ulster Freedom Fighters to withdraw their threat to shoot anybody attacking Protestant homes, describing the organisation as "yesterday's men" who were out of touch with their own community.
The threat was made in the wake of a number of attacks on homes in loyalist areas of Belfast on Wednesday night, in which windows in 16 homes and 13 cars were broken. On Thursday night, four masked and armed UFF gunmen staged a show of strength in the loyalist Shankill Parade area aimed at warning republicans against further attacks.
Around the same time, a number of Catholic homes in the nearby Carrick Hill and Ardoyne areas were attacked with paintbombs and bricks. A sledgehammer was used to break down one of the doors and a woman in her 80s suffered cuts and bruises to her legs and stomach.
Loyalist gunmen opened fire on police when an armoured RUC vehicle arrived at a military-style roadblock set up by the UFF unit at around 10.30 p.m. Police said the patrol was responding to a report of a shot having been fired. RUC officers tried to pursue the gunmen when they were fired on. A number of youths then gathered and stoned the police vehicle, smashing its rear window and preventing the officers from continuing their pursuit of the gunmen.
Two months ago, the UFF's Shankill brigade threatened to kill Catholics in response to attacks on Protestant homes. They later lifted the threat after reports of internal disagreements. The chairman of the Ulster Democratic Party, the UFF's political wing, Mr John White, yesterday denied that the paramilitary group's ceasefire had broken down, as claimed by the Sinn Fein MLA, Mr Gerry Kelly.
"The UFF ceasefire is intact. What happened recently was a response to demands from people in the area for protection. It was a defence mechanism, not proactive in terms of creating conflict," Mr White said. While not criticising the UFF's show of strength, the UDP chairman condemned the shots fired at police.
Earlier in the day, Mr Kelly visited some of the Catholic homes attacked during the night and said the events were a clear indication that the UFF's ceasefire had broken down.
Describing the UFF's show of strength as "self-indulgent", the SDLP's policing spokesman, Mr Alex Attwood, added: "Their odious words only confirm how out of touch and unrepresentative they are of the community. They look and sound like yesterday's men . . . The community has clearly demonstrated a resistance to provocative words and actions from whatever source. That same determination will continue to prevail."
Mr Attwood condemned the people responsible for sectarian attacks on Protestant homes, saying they were playing into the "hands of those in the UFF who will use any spurious pretext to threaten the peace".
His party colleague and MLA for north Belfast, Mr Alban Maginness, said the attacks were incited by "blind hatred and sectarianism" and condemned the UFF's threat to Catholics.
"Have they [the UFF] not yet learned that an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind? The last thing we need is for any paramilitary grouping to add to the tensions and fear in the community. I call for the UFF to withdraw their threat immediately and I call for these attacks on the community to cease."
The British Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Andrew MacKay, condemned both the attacks and the UFF threat, saying the shots fired at the RUC were "intolerable".