LOYALIST terrorists behind the Poyntzpass murders tried to kill a Protestant mother and her three-year-old daughter because her boyfriend is a Catholic, police sources in Northern Ireland confirmed last night.
The 29-year-old woman was hit in the leg by a single bullet in the late-night gun attack on Wednesday on her home at Kilbeg Walk on Antrim's predominantly Protestant Parkhall estate.
Two other bullets embedded in a doorway, sending a wooden splinter into the child's eye.
As the family prepared to move out of the area last night, police and local sources blamed the gun attack on the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
The same gang murdered friends Philip Allen and Damien Trainor in Poyntzpass, County Armagh, on Tuesday night. Villagers there will unite today for their separate funerals at the local Presbyterian and Catholic churches.
A fourth man was arrested by the RUC yesterday in connection with the double killing.
In Antrim nationalist and unionist alike condemned the terror gang for attempting to drive a wedge between communities in the town.
The Ulster Unionist mayor, Paddy Marks, said: ''Parkhall is predominantly Protestant but there have always been good relations. I am shocked and angry that murderers like those who did that terrible deed in Poyntzpass are now operating here.
''They are not wanted here. They do not represent anyone.''
That was certainly the feeling among neighbours of the couple. They are said to be thinking about leaving Northern Ireland for good because of the gun attack.
One close friend said she witnessed the incident. ''There was a guy with jeans and a hooded jumper hanging about outside the bungalows and the next thing I heard was what I thought were fireworks.
''But I soon realised it was gunfire and I ran to find the mother and child injured in their hallway. What sort of person would try to kill a three-year-old and her mother? It beggars belief.''
Tony Blair will meet Sinn Fein
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president Gerry Adams next week, after the republicans' suspension from the peace talks has been completed, writes Denis Campbell, Political Correspondent.
Sinn Fein's fortnight-long ban ends on Monday, but the Prime Minister is unlikely to risk inflaming tensions in Northern Ireland by meeting Mr Adams before Thursday.
The republicans, who were excluded last month after the IRA was involved in two murders, will not decide whether to resume their seat at the talks until they have met Mr Blair.
They demanded a Downing Street meeting to seek reassurances that it was worthwhile returning to the Stormont negotiations.
Ulster Unionists said Mr Blair was foolish to meet the Sinn Fein leader.
Their leader, Mr Ken Maginnis, criticised people in the Government who ''believe that somehow Sinn Fein want to be part of a political settlement. Those of us who come from Northern Ireland know that is not the case''.
Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam last night conceded that early May referendums on both sides of the Irish border on a Northern Ireland settlement were ''not physically possible''.
She said legislative requirements for the plebiscites, particularly in Dublin, would make it difficult for the initial target date to be met, but she hoped for later in May.
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