Ulster Freedom Fighters

The Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) is a Northern Irish Loyalist paramilitary group that has claimed responsibility for dozens of assassinations believed to have been carried out by members of the Ulster Defense Association (UDA).

In Northern Ireland, since the late 1960s, bloody conflict has been regular between the province's Roman Catholics (also called Republicans or Nationalists), who wish Northern Ireland to become a part of [Page 377]the Republic of Ireland, and its Protestants (also called Loyalists or Unionists), who wish it to remain part of Great Britain. Armed paramilitary groups have sprung up in both communities. One such Loyalist group, the Ulster Defense Association, began a campaign of sectarian assassinations in the spring of 1972, killing Catholics at random in reprisal for attacks by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). By the end of the year more than 80 people had been killed.

The Northern Irish ...