[Patrick]

A veteran Ulster loyalist terrorist was shot dead today in the Protestant heartland of Belfast's Shankill Road.



The victim was named as Bobby Moffat, a longstanding member of the Red Hand Commando, a terror group aligned to the larger Ulster Volunteer Force. Moffat, who was in his mid 40s, had been a member of the group for more than 20 years and had been a gunman for the organisation, local loyalists confirmed.

Sources told the Guardian that Moffat had been shot dead as a result of a local internal loyalist paramilitary dispute. They said there had no involvement in the killing by dissident republicans.

The murder will raise serious questions not only about the status of the UVF ceasefire but also about that organisation's claim that it had decommissioned all its guns and explosives earlier this year.

The Guardian has learned that Moffat was shot in the face at close range with a shotgun, a weapon that cannot be traced by ballistics checks and therefore cannot be linked to previous loyalist paramilitary shootings.

It is unclear at this stage whether the UVF's national leadership sanctioned the killing, although it is understood that Moffat had been in dispute with leading figures in the paramilitary movement over the last few months.

Witnesses said at least two masked gunmen shot Moffat at the corner of Conway Street and the Shankhill Road.

Ulster Unionist party member Bill Manwaring said: "Young children were on the street when this happened. We had 40 years of this area suffering from this kind of activity and there is no reason for this. It is unacceptable."

A witness said: "I heard about four shots and saw the gunmen standing in the middle of the road wearing balaclavas and orange tops.

"I saw the bloke lying there. I think he was shot in the head or the face."

The gunmen were seen running off through nearby Conway Street, which was packed with lunchtime shoppers.

Alex Attword, a Stormont minister and member of the nationalist SDLP, said it had happened "in broad daylight". "The people will be traumatised and we have to express our sympathy," he said.


-The Guardian

Cant belive this happened today in daylight