BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- A Protestant killer group shot the wrong man when a Catholic father of five was gunned down in the home of a leading member of the Irish Republican Army's political wing, the Ulster Freedom Fighters said Sunday.
The victim, Alan Lundy, was carrying out renovation work in the home of Sinn Fein member Alex Maskey Saturday night when two gunmen burst into the house in the Andersontown district in west Belfast and shot him dead.
The gunmen then ran through the house searching for their intended target who was hiding in an upstairs bedroom, but they failed to find him.
Maskey's terrified wife and two children escaped through the kitchen into the rear garden.
It was the third time the UFF has attempted to kill Maskey who is a close friend of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and a high profile member of the party. He was shot in the stomach when he answered a knock at the door of his home in 1987.
In a telephone call to a Belfast radio station the UFF later admitted it shot the wrong man, but made no apology for the killing.
The spokesman for the group which also carried out a gun attack in a Belfast betting shop last week, injuring five Catholics, said it would continue to target prominent nationalists who he claimed were involved in pan-nationalist collusion for a united Ireland.
