UVF breach cease-fire?

According to the Guardian’s Henry McDonald, the man shot dead on Belfast’s Shankill Road has been “named locally as Bobby Moffat, [and] is understood to have been a member of the Red Hand Commando (RHC) terrorist group.”  The short Guardian report adds

It is believed Moffat was killed as part of an internal loyalist dispute and there was no Republican involvement.

Moffat is thought to have been in dispute with the RHC-aligned Ulster Volunteer Force.

The killing will prompt questions about the status not only of the UVF ceasefire but its claim earlier this year to have decommissioned its weapons.

Adds From a follow-up Guardian report

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.

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