The RUC has been questioning seven people about a shooting incident in the loyalist Shankill area of west Belfast on Monday night, in which a man was confronted by two armed men and shot one of them in the leg with a legally-held shotgun.
According to reliable local sources, the two attackers are members of the Ulster Defence Association who wanted to steal the man's gun. The man, who is understood to be a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, discharged four shots, wounding one of the attackers.
In a separate incident, an 18-year-old man has been recovering in hospital after a suspected paramilitary-style shooting in the nationalist Poleglass area of west Belfast on Monday evening. The victim was taken from a house on the Glenbawn estate by two masked men and shot in both ankles. The attack is blamed on republican paramilitaries.
Meanwhile, British army technical experts have made safe a pipe-bomb device near Benburb, Co Tyrone.