N. Ireland Militants Bury Leader and Vow Revenge
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — More than 5,000 Protestant extremists walked Thursday behind the coffin of a senior Belfast terrorist gunned down in an internal feud.
An “honor guard” of masked men in leather jackets fired a volley of shots over the casket of John Gregg, 45, a commander in the outlawed Ulster Defense Assn., a major anti-Catholic paramilitary group responsible for hundreds of sectarian killings over the past three decades.
Gregg won fame in extremist Protestant circles by shooting Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party, in 1984.
The UDA’s four surviving commanders, who marched behind Gregg’s flag-draped coffin near leaders of other outlawed Protestant gangs in a rare scene of unity, emphasized that their No. 1 target now is deposed UDA warlord Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair, who is in prison.
Adair was blamed for ordering Gregg’s killing Saturday.
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