PROTESTANT houses, churches and Orange Halls have been attacked in various incidents across the North. In west Belfast, stones were thrown at four Protestant houses early yesterday in Leestone Terrace, off the nationalist Stewartstown Road. No one was injured. The home of a Protestant woman on the Stewartstown Road was also petrol bombed early yesterday. The kitchen and living room were extensively damaged.
St Mark's Church of Ireland church in Tennent Street suffered slight damage after an arson attack. Orange halls in Omagh and Carrickmore in Co Tyrone and Moneymore in Co Derry all suffered scorch damage in further arson attacks.
An attempt was made to burn down a Protestant secondary school in Dungiven, Co Derry. A Protestant family was intimidated from their home in Newtownbutler, Co Tyrone, where a local Orange Hall was also damaged in an arson attack.
There were reports of Protestant families in the Fountain Estate in Derry being intimidated by nationalists and that 10 other families in the Waterside had been forced to leave their homes.
Protestant farmers living just outside Derry claimed that they were threatened by nationalists. There was also intimidation in Co Down. Protestants' businesses and homes were attacked in Newry, Newcastle and Castlewellan.
A local unionist councillor, Mr Gerald Douglas, whose petrol station in Bryansford was petrol bombed, said all the Protestant shops in Castlewellan had been attacked and that a primary school had been firebombed.
Mr Douglas, who is a prominent member of the Orange Order, said he had been targeted simply because he was a Protestant. The home of a man and his elderly father was also petrol bombed in Newry.
The Garavaghy Road Residents' Coalition condemned any attempt to intimidate Protestant families from nationalist areas.
"Such intimidation is as unjust and obscene as the treatment meted out to this and other communities since 11th July," a spokesman said.