A catholic family with a five-month-old baby has escaped injury in a petrol-bomb attack as north Belfast was yet again marred by sectarian violence on Thursday night.
Stones, bottles, golf balls and petrol-bombs were thrown at houses in the nationalist Ardoyne area from the loyalist Glenbryn estate. One petrol-bomb landed in the back yard of the family's house in Alliance Avenue. The child's mother, who did not wish to be identified, said the attacks were happening on an almost nightly basis and included nail- and pipe-bombs.
Police and British army patrols then came under attack in a number of separate incidents as loyalist and nationalist crowds clashed in the Ardoyne area. Nationalist youths stoned a police Land-Rover outside shops. Another police vehicle sustained minor damage as it was attacked by stone-throwers in nearby Brompton Park. A number of fireworks were thrown at a military patrol on the Ardoyne Road.
Meanwhile, it has been learnt that an SDLP councillor, Mr Pat Convery, was beaten to the ground as he walked home from a friend's house on the outskirts of north Belfast on Sunday night.
As he reached the junction of Serpentine Road and Glenhurst Parade, he was confronted by a man from his own community who demanded to know what the SDLP was doing about the ongoing violence in the flashpoint area. He then punched the councillor in the head and knocked off his glasses.
Mr Convery was not available for comment yesterday but an SDLP spokesman confirmed that the incident had taken place.
In Derry, a stone-throwing mob attacked a number of fire engines as they responded to an emergency call in the Bogside area on Thursday night. The youths hurled bricks and rocks, smashing the windscreen of an engine. There were no injuries, but fire officers decided to withdraw due to the threat posed by the crowd. A senior officer warned that lives were in danger if the attacks continued.
"If we are stopped from doing our job, eventually lives will be put at risk. Not only the lives of crews but the communities we serve," a station officer, Mr Mark Darrall, added.
Three men have been injured in separate attacks in Belfast and Derry. In Monkstown, on the outskirts of north Belfast, a 25-year-old man was taken to the rear of a house in Tynan Drive at lunchtime yesterday and shot in the lower leg in what appears to have been a paramilitary-style punishment attack.
The previous night, a gang of men badly beat a man in the Poleglass estate on the outskirts of west Belfast. In Derry a 22-year-old Protestant man had to receive stitches to facial wounds after being beaten by a gang.