The SDLP has expressed its concern over growing sectarian violence as the RUC investigate a number of attacks which occurred overnight.
A pipe bomb was thrown at the roof of a car in Carnany Drive in Ballymoney, while in Co Derry another pipe bomb was thrown at the back of a house. The device exploded but no-one was injured.
The RUC are also investigating the outbreak of a fire at a Catholic church in Co Antrim which was the target of a sectarian attack last July.
SDLP’s North Antrim Assembly member, Mr Sean Farren, said his party was worried about the activities of paramilitary groups, particularly the UDA.
But the Northern Minister for Higher Education insisted the attack would not destabilise the political structures.
Meanwhile the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was today accused of planting a car bomb under the vehicle of a former Sinn Féin member in north Belfast.
Mr Gerry Kelly, one of the party's representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly, claimed the man found the device attached to his car in the nationalist Ardoyne area at around 7.30 a.m.
It follows a bomb alert in the same district on Wednesday when a suspect device fell from a resident's vehicle as he was reversing out of his driveway. Mr Kelly said the man who made the latest discovery had been warned by the RUC earlier this week that his life was in danger.
He accused the UDA of orchestrating a campaign of attacks despite issuing a statement denying it has abandoned its ceasefire.
An RUC confirmed army bomb disposal experts have been called to Kerrens Mews in the Ardoyne area following reports of a suspicious object.
The find came as a petrol bomb and the remains of another were discovered in the grounds of a Catholic primary school in Larne, Co Antrim.
PA