THE deadly feud between INLA factions appeared set to continue after Friday night's shooting in west Belfast which has left a man critically ill.
Mr Sean McEvoy (32) underwent emergency surgery and was still in intensive care in hospital yesterday, having being hit several times by rifle fire after he left a house in New Barnsley Parade.
A single gunman is believed to have opened fire on Mr McEvoy, who was shot in the neck, chest and lower body. He had survived a previous gun attack last March on the Whiterock Road.
Mr McEvoy's parents were reported as denying that he had any paramilitary links. However, responsibility for the shooting was being attributed to the so-called "GHQ group" of former INLA members who were expelled from the organisation.
Five people have been killed and a number of others seriously injured in the war of attrition between the INLA and this splinter group, each of which claims to be the authentic Irish National Liberation Army. The first killing this year was carried out by the GHQ group, which murdered Mr Gino Gallagher, who had taken over as INLA chief-of-staff.
Retaliatory killings followed, and there have been about a dozen tit-for-tat incidents. The gunman involved in Friday's night's attack was reported to have been wearing a baseball cap, and witnesses said he escaped with an accomplice down an alleyway after their getaway car stalled.
A statement from the INLA yesterday said the circumstances of the attack had caused local people to suspect the involvement of "sinister elements operating under the control of British intelligence or RUC Special Branch".
The statement said: "The facts speak for themselves. How was an individual, armed with a rifle, able to walk around for up to five minutes, mount a sustained gun attack, and then walk across the main Springfield Road - all in full view of banks of high-resolution cameras positioned in the Fort Jericho Barracks and New Barnsley RUC station?"
The statement said the INLA had ascertained that when the car in which the gunman had been travelling stalled, a second vehicle was seized using the name of the Irish Republican Army. The INLA said, however, that it did not believe the IRA was involved.
A spokesman for the Irish Republican Socialist Party challenged the RUC to release the findings of forensic examination of the car abandoned by the gunman and his accomplice. It said local people had said that the gunman and his accomplice made no attempt to disguise their identities.
The SDLP MP, Dr Joe Hendron, described the attack as "appalling" and said it bore all the hallmarks of a paramilitary action.