Further attacks on homes

Patrick Vincent: Pipe bombers targeted home

The police are treating pipe bomb attacks on two homes in County Londonderry as sectarian.

No-one was injured in Wednesday night's attacks on Catholic homes in Limavady.

One device exploded in the front garden of a house at Eventide Gardens, the other at a house on Edenmore Park.

Patrick Vincent, whose home was targeted, said he did not know why his family had been singled out.

For a number of weeks now Catholic homes across the north have come under nightly attack

Malachy O'Kane

The pipe bomb exploded outside a bedroom of the house where he lives with his pregnant girlfriend.

He said he would not be driven out of his home.

"It's not human," he said. "My girlfriend is seven-and-a-half-months pregnant. She could have been in that bedroom."

The attacks have been condemned by local politicians.

East Londonderry Sinn Fein councillor Malalchy O'Kane blamed the UDA for the attacks.

The device exploded in the garden

Fermanagh/South Tyrone MP Ken Maginnis said members of the public must give information to the police to help stop the attacks.

Social Democratic and Labour Party assembly member for the area Arthur Doherty said he intended to seek an immediate meeting with the police.

Meanwhile, in Tyrone, what the police described as a "crudely-made explosive device", was thrown at a house on Wednesday night.

A garage window was blown out and a parked car was damaged when a firework with nails taped to it exploded at Gortnasor, Dungannon.

The blast happened shortly after midnight. There were no reports of any injuries.

Gerry Kelly: "There has been attack for nearly every day"

The number of attacks on homes now stands at 44 since the start of the year.

The Irish Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, spoke by telephone to the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, John Reid, about the upsurge in loyalist pipe-bomb attacks.

Earlier, Sinn Fein representatives met Mr Cowen in Dublin on Thursday morning, to discuss the sectarian campaign during a tense and difficult time in the peace process.

The delegation - which included the victims of recent pipe bomb attacks - met Brian Cowen at Leinster House and was led by Sinn Fein assembly member for north Belfast, Gerry Kelly.

Mr Cowen said he was "appalled" by the attacks.

Brian Cowen: Met victims of attacks

He called on politicians and community leaders to unite against those behind them and said there was an urgent need to reassure communities that they would be fully protected.

The latest incidents followed a rash of other gun and pipe bomb attacks around the province on Tuesday night.

Government sources have told the BBC they are assessing whether or not the attacks are being organised by a main loyalist paramilitary group.

Senior RUC officers have said that elements of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association have been involved in some of the attacks on Catholic homes.

Security sources believe that while the attacks may not be sanctioned by the UDA leadership, the group's organisation into six independently controlled brigades, means that each commander could stop attacks in their area if they wished to.

Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Security Minister, Adam Ingram, has told MPs that he is considering introducing hate crimes legislation in Northern Ireland.

Mr Ingram, however, said legislation alone would not produce a solution.

He also said the UDA ceasefire was under daily review.

On Thursday, Gary McMichael, leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, called on the paramilitary group to clarify whether it is still on ceasefire.

The UDP has political links with the UDA.

Mr McMichael said: "I think that while there is uncertainty around all of this it would be helpful if the UDA were to clarify what its own position was."