Fears of another bloody internal loyalist feud were partly allayed early yesterday after members of a UDA faction which had set itself in opposition against the mainstream UDA was forced to flee Northern Ireland.
A north Belfast pastor, who depicted a scene of angry and frightened dissident UDA members brandishing machine guns and other weapons in a north Belfast housing estate, yesterday morning said a potential "bloodbath" had been averted by the decision to leave.
Following violent incidents in recent weeks involving north Belfast UDA members loyal to Andre and Ihab Shoukri and those loyal to the UDA so-called inner council leadership, matters finally came to a head through Wednesday night and into yesterday morning.
On Wednesday night, UDA dissidents attacked homes in the Ballysillan and Tyndale areas of north Belfast belonging to loyalists who supported the mainstream UDA leadership.
One of the houses targeted belonged to an "interim" leader imposed by the UDA leadership on north Belfast, it is understood.
Last week several UDA people living in north Belfast who remained loyal to the overall leadership were also attacked, and some were badly beaten.
Word of Wednesday night's attacks spread through Belfast and several hundred UDA members and supporters descended on the Westland estate, the stronghold of the Shoukri supporters where Alan McClean - who is believed to have replaced the brothers as UDA dissident leader in north Belfast - lives.
By then the PSNI gathered at the scene to prevent the crowd attacking the dissidents. Tensions were exacerbated by the fact that these hundreds of mainstream UDA members were corralled close to the nationalist Oldpark area.
Members of the Ulster Political Research Group were seen to be speaking to Sinn Féin members, trying to assure them that they posed no threat to local nationalists.
Mr McClean - an associate of the Shoukri brothers, who are both in jail and who in June were expelled from the UDA - was forced to leave the Westland estate with his wife and two sons and some supporters at about 4am yesterday.
They left in a convoy of cars with the PSNI ensuring their safe passage out of Belfast.
It is understood they drove to Dublin airport to catch a flight out of the country.
North Belfast pastor Brian Madden spoke to Mr McClean in the Westland estate, and pleaded with him for his own safety and the safety of people in the area to quit Northern Ireland.
There are hopes now that the expulsion of McClean will allow passions to cool in north Belfast.
The overall UDA leadership yesterday initiated moves to appoint a new leadership in the area.
The leadership of the UDA issued a statement yesterday evening, saying "the members in north Belfast are glad to be back in the mainstream of the organisation where they can play a full and meaningful role in the transition required to bring about a positive change to our communities".
The UDA is run by an inner council of six "brigadiers", four from Belfast, one from the northwest area and one from south- east Antrim.
There is understood to be considerable anger at leadership level that while the leaders in the north, east, south and west Belfast united in opposing the north Belfast dissidents, the Antrim "brigadier" reportedly remained neutral on the issue.
This has now raised concern of a potentially dangerous rift between south-east Antrim and the UDA leadership.
