Two men in their twenties were being treated in hospital last night following so-called punishment shootings in nationalist west Belfast. The men were shot in an alleyway in Lenadoon at around 8 p.m. last night.
One man was bundled into a car while walking along the Falls Road, while the second man was abducted in the Ballymurphy area, before they were brought to Lenadoon.
The Workers' Party and the anti-paramilitary group Families Against Intimidation And Terror (FAIT) have condemned an assault on a 25-year-old man in the Markets area of Belfast.
The man was attacked on Monday night and sustained injuries to his head, chest and legs.
A spokesman for the Workers' Party, Mr Paddy Lynn, described the assault, which bears the hallmarks of a so-called punishment attack, as "brutal, barbaric and bloody.
"This was a particularly brutal and disgusting attack and those responsible must be sick and sadistic," he said.
Mr Vincent McKenna, a spokesman for FAIT, blamed the attack on the IRA but said he was encouraged that more and more people were reporting perpetrators to the authorities despite the danger such actions could pose to their own lives.
He called on the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, to act immediately lest the Belfast Agreement become nothing more than "political cover for the terrorist godfathers to carry out their cowardly deeds on a daily basis". A spokesman for the RUC said the police were not prepared to speculate on the identity of the attackers.
Sinn Fein blamed loyalists for five attacks on Catholics in the Markets and Lower Ormeau Road areas of Belfast over Christmas. Mr Sean Hayes, a party councillor for south Belfast, claimed some of the assailants were "known loyalists" from the Donegall Pass district.