Protestant Militant’s Son Hurt in Shooting Attack

BELFAST, Northern Ireland —  The teenage son of Northern Ireland’s most notorious Protestant extremist was shot in both legs in a punishment-style attack, police said Thursday, in a sign of growing tensions within the Belfast paramilitary underworld.

Jonathan Adair, 17, was attacked late Wednesday in West Belfast’s Lower Shankill district, the stronghold of his father, Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair, who commands the Lower Shankill unit of the outlawed Ulster Defense Assn., which has long attacked nearby Roman Catholic districts and runs illegal rackets.

Police trying to reach the wounded youth were initially blocked by a mob. He was later treated at a hospital and released.

The motive for the attack was unclear. Police said it was carried out by either Adair’s UDA or the smaller, rival Ulster Volunteer Force. Both groups mete out potentially crippling shootings and beatings in the toughest Protestant districts to enforce control of competing criminal enterprises.

John White, a UDA veteran and friend of the Adair family, said he thought the UDA was probably responsible, given the site of the shooting--an area of Lower Shankill dominated by UDA murals.

He said he didn’t know why the teenager would be targeted by his own side, nor whether the elder Adair knew that any punishment was planned.

The elder Adair is a divisive figure, even within the UDA. Some UDA members consider him dangerously bellicose and outspoken.