Top loyalist shot dead at Maze

n Three INLA men arrested n Four people gunned down outside Dungannon hotel n Mowlam rejects call to resign

Despite appeals for calm after yesterday's assassination of Billy Wright, Northern Ireland's most notorious loyalist terrorist, four men were injured last night in a shooting in Co Tyrone.

Security forces suspect the attack, which took place outside a Catholic bar, was loyalist retaliation for the murder by republicans of Wright, aged 37, inside the Maze prison near Belfast.

A number of shots were fired outside the Glengannon Inn, a roadhouse with a largely Catholic clientele a few miles from the town of Dungannon.

Two men who were hit in the head were said to be seriously hurt. The scene of the attack is within easy reach of the Portadown base of Wright's breakaway group, which is opposed to the loyalist ceasefire.

In an extraordinary breach of security at what is regarded as the UK's highest-security prison, members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) used two guns to kill Wright.

Two INLA members are reported to have scrambled over the roof of a prison block to shoot Wright several times as he sat in a minibus, waiting to meet relatives in the visitor area. Three republican prisoners were being questioned after a number of arrests were made.

Last night Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, described the shooting as a very serious lapse of security which merited the fullest investigation. She rejected calls for resignations, including her own, saying they would represent "an excessive step" which would be inappropriate, unhelpful and premature. She called the assassination appalling in itself and an attack on the peace process.

Politicians fear the assassination will destabilise the peace talks, due to resume on 12 January and already the subject of loyalist complaints. A statement by the Wright's colleagues in the paramilitary Loyalist Volunteer Force said the "loyal son of Ulster" would "not die in vain".

Amid skirmishes last night, a bus was hijacked and set on fire in Ballymena, Co Antrim. Several people were arrested but there were no injuries. Police and troops patrolled Portadown where protesters left a bus and a number of cars burning.

US President Bill Clinton urged all sides to resist retaliation. "This killing, coming during the Christmas season, makes no sense at a time when the people of Northern Ireland have real cause for rejoicing at the prospects for peace and prosperity in the new year,"he said.

The major breach of security at the Maze is a serious embarrassment, coming only two weeks after an IRA man serving a double life sentence for two murders walked out of the same prison. Liam Averill made his escape dressed as a woman after a Christmas party.

Yesterday, the Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis said the killing made a mockery of both security and justice. He said he had written to Dr Mowlam after the Averill escape to warn her the prison system was being manipulated in a "drastically dangerous fashion". He called for the resignations of Dr Mowlam and two senior security officials.

Dr Mowlam said: "I personally at this moment do not consider it a matter for resignations."

Wright had been active in planning and carrying out loyalist murders over a period of almost two decades. A year-and-a-half ago he was expelled from the Ulster Volunteer Force after refusing to recognise its ceasefire. Defying a UVF death threat, he formed the LVF which this year killed three Catholics.

He was jailed in March for threatening to kill a woman. The IRA made repeated attempts to kill Wright while he was free.

One prison officer said it was easy to smuggle goods into the Maze. "The prisoners could get anything in they want because we can't search visitors properly. We can't search the groin or buttock area of male visitors or the chest area of female visitors."

Prison sources said three INLA men armed with two guns had said they would hand the weapons to a Catholic priest. When a priest was called they surrendered without a struggle.

This month the annual conference of the INLA's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, rejected a call for a ceasefire. The INLA's position was then described as one of "defensive retaliation".

INLA and LVF are both minor groups that disapprove of the peace process and oppose the republican and loyalist ceasefires. Neither is involved in the multi-party discussions, so the talks will not be directly affected.

King Rat, page 2