Loyalist paramilitaries tonight warned that they would continue their campaign of bomb attacks on the homes of nationalists in Northern Ireland.
The Red Hand Defenders - seen as a cover name for the Ulster Defence Association - made the threat as they claimed responsibility for pipe bomb attacks on two homes in north Belfast's Deer Park Parade late last night.
They said they were only reacting to republican aggression and said in a statement to Ulster Television: "The situation is that when Protestant homes are being attacked so will those of nationalists."
For one of the families attacked it was the final straw and they said they were moving out for good.
Mr Dermot Hoy said: "We can't live like this any more. It's a nightmare. We're out of her today and we will not be back."
The couple were relaxing in the home they have shared for the past 35 years when a pipe bomb was thrown into their rear garden. It exploded shattering a conservatory and causing other damage.
Mr Hoy, who is caring for his wife, Delores, as she recovers from a brain haemorrhage, said: "There have been 20 attacks on us since Christmas. The garden backs onto the Ballysillan playing fields so we're very much a target here."
He revealed that the RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan telephoned them in the wake of the attack to express his concern.
Minutes before the attack another pipe bomb exploded in the garden of a neighbouring house. A woman was at home on her own at the time but escaped unharmed.
Priests in north Belfast met during the day to discuss the continuing attacks. The new Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor, Donal McKeown, said afterwards: "It is intolerable that ordinary, normal, good people who have spent a long time trying to get themselves settled have to go to bed at night constantly afraid of attacks at their front door, their back door, over the wall or through the letter box.
"I want to see pressure put on so these attacks come to an end."
Police in the area said they were doing all they could to try to halt the attack and had a heavy force of officers, supported by the British army, on the streets.
Sinn Féin said today that loyalists have been involved in almost 200 bomb and gun attacks in the province this year.
North Belfast councillor Mr Eoin O'Broin said Ulster Secretary Dr John Reid had refused to acknowledge the UDA ceasefire was over.
He added: "The reality is that the UDA continue their daily bombing campaign against the nationalist population."
As the sectarian violence continued in north Belfast, the MP for the area said many families were now living in fear of their lives because of the pipe bomb attacks.
Mr Nigel Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party said: "It is time these attacks ceased and people were left free to live in peace for many families are living in fear of their lives."