Security forces in the North have initiated 24-hour surveillance operations on senior loyalist paramilitaries in Belfast and mid-Ulster as growing tension between the UVF and LVF threatens to lead to further violence.
The security forces were not prepared to comment yesterday on the latest operational measures. The move is part of an effort to quell a simmering internal loyalist feud which has already cost the lives of three people this year in mid-Ulster.
Loyalist sources said yesterday that undercover RUC squads had been operating in loyalist areas of north and south Belfast, and Lurgan and Portadown in Co Armagh.
The rift between the UVF and LVF widened even further yesterday when the LVF implicated a leading UVF commander from the north Down as having been involved in the murder of prominent Belfast loyalist Frankie Curry, shot dead on St Partick's Day last year. The LVF alleged the north Down commander supplied the weapon used to kill Mr Curry, a nephew of former UVF leader Gusty Spence.
No group has admitted responsibility for Mr Curry's death although security forces believe other loyalist were to blame.
Earlier last week in an open show of strength, LVF men wearing balaclavas, combat gear and carrying automatic rifles and handguns, laid a wreath at Mr Curry's grave in Belfast's Roselawn cemetery.
At the weekend UVF sources in Belfast confirmed that senior members of the organisation were "treating security as a priority".