The overnight spate of violent incidents across Northern Ireland is part of a co-ordinated campaign by the UDA, the SDLP said today.
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Police officers examine the scene
of an explosion in Coleraine. REUTERS/Paul McErlane |
The UDA are sending a New Year’s message to the people of Northern Ireland that they "haven’t gone away", according to SDLP councillor for Larne, Mr Martin Wilson.
Last night a Protestant man died after the large pipe bomb device detonated in an alleyway yards from his home in Coleraine. He has been named as Mr William Moore Campbell, 19, from Winston Way.
An police spokesman said: "At this moment in time it would appear that he was working on the device and it exploded in his face".
A woman and four children escaped injury when a bomb was thrown through the living room window of their home in North Belfast.
In a separate incident, a pipe-bomb was defused outside a policeman's home in Annalong on the Co Down coast. It was made safe after army bomb experts carried out two controlled explosions.
Earlier in the day, police discovered 500 empty bottles in North Belfast which they believe were to have been used to make petrol bombs.
And the Larne home of SDLP councillor Mr Danny O’Connor was attacked last night. His car and his father’s car were damaged.
Police say three masked men fired a barrage of stones at the cars in the early hours of the morning. Mr Wilson said his colleague’s home has been attacked approximately 20 times in the past four years.
"Yet again, the SDLP has been the victim of blatant sectarian hatred and a concerted campaign in an attempt to silence the elected representatives and the nationalist people in Larne," Mr Wilson said.
"I am convinced that this is part of an ongoing campaign by the UDA," he added.
Mr Wilson said he believed the attack was connected to other incidents in Coleraine and North Belfast in the past 24 hours. "It is no coincidence that all these attacks occurred in UDA strongholds."
"I believe there is some sort of UDA co-ordination in these incidents. They are sending out a message for 2002."