Loyalist paramilitaries were behind one of the worst nights of street violence in north Belfast in years when a 600-strong mob clashed with police in a Protestant part of Ardoyne into the early hours of yesterday, according to security sources and politicians.
Gunmen fired 50 shots, including two bursts from automatic weapons. No one was hit but 33 RUC officers were injured when rioters hurled 125 petrol bombs, six blast bombs, which explode on impact, fireworks, bricks and bottles. Hijackers also set a bus and car alight. Police fired four live rounds and nine plastic bullets.
The trouble erupted after loyalists blockading the Crumlin Road tried to force their way up to the Brookfield Mill, where Catholic workers escaped uninjured on Wednesday afternoon after an explosive device was thrown into a yard close to where they were standing.
Alan McQuillan, the RUC assistant chief constable for Belfast, said his officers were caught in the middle of trying to prevent a concerted attack on the nationalist community.
Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist MP for North Belfast, appealed for calm but blamed the government for creating the conditions for trouble by appeasing terrorists. "It has consistently ignored breaches of ceasefires and given concessions to the backers of violence. Now society is reaping the cost."
Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly said the loyalist Ulster Defence Association orchestrated the violence, and praised the IRA for showing restraint.
Ardoyne has been rife with sectarian tension since the beginning of the summer, escalated by the loyalist protest at Holy Cross Catholic girls' primary school, where parents were attacked with fireworks this week.
Protestant homes have also been attacked, and there has been sporadic night-time rioting for months. However, this was the most serious since July 12, when security chiefs blamed the IRA for coordinating a seven-hour riot.
Local and security sources say the two main loyalist paramilitary groups, the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force, are also stirring things up on the Protestant side.
Loyalist sources said the catalyst for the latest outbreak was the alleged involvement of a notorious IRA man in a gang which beat a man with strong UDA links on Sunday night.
The Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, has already warned the UDA it is treading a fine line over maintenance of its ceasefire. Security chiefs blame elements of the organisation, which is becoming increasingly fragmented and no longer supports the Good Friday agreement, for more than 200 pipe bomb attacks on Catholic homes this year.
But loyalist sources said one of the worrying aspects of the recent violence is the involvement of West Belfast UDA members, who until now had been among the most peaceful in the paramilitary group.
Jim Rodgers, the Ulster Unionist lord mayor for Belfast, said the sectarian hatred and bigotry of the past few months was the worst he had seen in decades, and called on all sides to pull back.
He claimed many republican and loyalist paramilitaries, freed early from prison under the Good Friday agreement, were rioting and that the police were making matters worse by being heavy-handed.
"I condemn violence from whatever quarter, but the dogs in the street know it's the IRA, UDA and UVF, only it's not politically correct to say so," he said. "Loyalists feel under threat and they've seen republican violence pay. But the RUC mobile support units are just weighing in with their batons, beating women and children. They've got to cool it."
Billy Hutchinson, a Stormont assembly man whose Progressive Unionist Party speaks for the UVF, also criticised the police and said he believed security policy had been tailored to please the nationalist community because of the SDLP's decision to join the new ruling police board.
Sinn Fein has refused to nominate members to the board, made up of 10 politicians and nine independents, and although the Ulster Unionists and DUP have done so, a major behind-the-scenes row has broken out over its chairmanship.
The Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble wants it chaired by a UUP member, with an SDLP deputy chairman, and has accused the SDLP of lobbying for a nationalist.
It was expected it would be chaired by one of the independent members but Mr Reid insisted he had yet to make a final choice and would not be swayed by politicking.