One of Belfast's most senior and most flamboyant loyalist paramilitary figures has been shot dead in an attack that appears to be part of an internal feud.
Jim Gray, until recently the east Belfast brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest loyalist group in Northern Ireland, was shot twice in the chest by men who burst into his mother's home yesterday. He had answered a knock at the door of the house in Clarawood estate, a loyalist area.
Gray, 47, had been released on bail on 15 September after spending some months in prison on charges of money-laundering and possession of the proceeds of crime.
Half a dozen Protestants have this year been killed in loyalist feuding, chiefly between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
The Gray killing is however most likely to have resulted from tensions within the UDA. Since his arrest, former colleagues have been " bad-mouthing" him in public, leading to speculation that his life was at risk.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/article317239.ece