LVF behind firebomb attack

Concerns have been raised about escalating violence and criminality linked to the unionist paramilitary LVF following a firebomb attack on a house in County Armagh.

A couple and their seven-month-old daughter escaped injury when two petrol bombs were thrown at their home in Lurgan early on Friday.

The couple, who did not want to be named, have been targeted by LVF members intent on driving them from their home.

One petrol bomb was thrown at the front of the house in the Mourneview estate but failed to ignite. A second bomb was thrown at the rear but was quickly extinguished.

Less than 24 hours earlier the couple received a warning from police that they were under threat.

Sinn Féin Policing Board member Daithi McKay said questions needed to be raised about a growing threat from what he described as ‘renegade loyalists’.

“In terms of policing there needs to be immediate action taken to stop the LVF regaining any visible power base,” he said.

“In north Antrim in particular we have drug dealers who seem to be acting with impunity, with communities suffering as a result.”

LVF involvement has been suspected in the murder of Antrim man Martin Morgan in his Greystone estate home last July.

In December former LVF man Stuart Hill escaped a murder bid on the outskirts of north Belfast.

Hill defected from the organisation in 2006 and had been under death threat from his former associates.

The LVF has also been linked to a criminal gang calling itself the “Irish Republican Liberation Army”, that has threatened north Belfast members of Sinn Féin.

“The LVF cannot be allowed to slowly regroup and through the policing board we will be asking questions of the PSNI in connection to this escalation in violence and criminality,” Mr McKay said.

Urgent Appeal