A former Provisional IRA assassin has been shot dead in Northern Ireland in what appears to be a revenge killing for the murder of another republican veteran in Belfast four months ago.

Kevin McGuigan was hit with repeated gunfire at his home in the nationalist Short Strand district of east Belfast on Wednesday night.

Locals reported that McGuigan was struck by at least six bullets fired from two automatic weapons at his house in Comber Court. Two masked men dressed in black were seen running away from the area shortly afterwards.

The killing has the potential to destabilise the already fragile power-sharing coalition at the devolved parliament in Stormont.

Security and republican sources pointed at former members of the Provisional IRA as being responsible for targeting McGuigan, which could in unionist eyes in particular constitute a breach of the organisation’s ceasefire.

Republicans in Belfast have repeatedly blamed McGuigan for murdering Gerard Davison in May.

Davison was shot dead in Welsh Street as he was walking to his work at a local community group. He is believed to have been personally responsible for or ordering the deaths of up to 15 men from the early 1990s onwards, many of whom were accused of drug dealing within nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

He is also accused of giving the order to attack Belfast man Robert McCartney that resulted in the fork lift truck driver’s death outside a city centre bar a decade ago.

Women carry the the coffin of former IRA leader Gerard Davison in south Belfast on 9 May. Photograph: Peter Morrison/AP

Some of the men Davison ordered the deaths of were killed by McGuigan. At one time Davison and McGuigan were key gunmen in an IRA front organisation called Direct Action Against Drugs during the mid to late 1990s.

The pair later fell out over a dispute with a republican family in the Short Strand district, with McGuigan ultimately being kneecapped by his former IRA comrades. Following the shooting McGuigan was said to have vowed to take revenge against Davison.



South Belfast SDLP MP Alasdair McDonnell condemned those responsible for the shooting. He said: “This was a brutal and terrible crime in Belfast and I utterly condemn those behind it.

“The perpetrator must be held to account for bringing this level of inhumanity and savagery back to our streets.In just two days a bomb has exploded near a children’s playing field in Derry and a man has been murdered in east Belfast. We must stand against those who would seek to drag us all back to the ways of the past.

“I urge anyone with information about either of these actions to go to the police.”