A loyalist paramilitary group has declared that all republican former prisoners in Northern Ireland are "legitimate targets" following a shooting in Belfast at the weekend.
A caller claiming to be from the Red Hand Defenders - a cover name used by several loyalist groups including the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) - contacted a Belfast newspaper last night and claimed responsibility for a murder attempt on a Catholic taxi driver in the north of the city.
The caller claimed in a call to Daily Irelandthe man was a former IRA prisoner and that the RHD now considered all former republican prisoners to be "legitimate targets".
The taxi driver picked up four men on the Crumlin Road on Saturday night and drove them to the Ligoniel area.
One of the men then put a handgun to the back of his head. However, the gun jammed and the men fled down an alley towards the loyalist Ballysillan area after a struggle with their intended victim.
Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds appealed for calm. "Ordinary people have no desire to see their area convulsed in further attacks or see a descent into more violence," he said.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Caral Ní Chuilin said the murder attempt was clearly sectarian. "This taxi driver was going about his daily business. He was targeted because of where he worked. The only thing that saved this man's life was the fact that the gun jammed."