Editing Ulster Defence Association (section)

=== Paramilitary campaign ===
{{See also|Timeline of Ulster Defence Association actions}}
<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:UDAMembers123.jpg|thumb|250px|Masked and armed UDA members at a show of strength in Belfast]] -->
[[File:Flag of the Ulster Freedom Fighters.svg|thumb|250px|The flag of the "Ulster Freedom Fighters" with a clenched fist representing the [[Red Hand of Ulster]] and the Latin motto {{Lang|la|Feriens tego}}, meaning "striking I defend"]]

Starting in 1972 the UDA along with the other main Loyalist paramilitary group the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]], undertook an armed campaign against the Catholic population of Northern Ireland that would last until the end of the troubles. In May 1972, the UDA's pressured leader Tommy Herron decided that responsibility for acts of violence committed by the UDA would be claimed by the "UFF". Its first public statements came one month later.<ref name="UFF">Wood, Ian S., ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA'' (Edinburgh, 2006), p. 21</ref>

The UDA's official position during the Troubles was that if the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (Provisional IRA) called off its campaign of violence, then it would do the same. However, if the British government announced that it was withdrawing from Northern Ireland, then the UDA would act as "the IRA in reverse."<ref name="OBrien_91">Brendan O'Brien, the Long War, the IRA and Sinn Féin (1995), p.91</ref>

Active throughout the Troubles, its armed campaign gained prominence in the early 1990s through [[Johnny Adair]]'s ruthless leadership of the Lower [[Shankill Road|Shankill]] 2nd Battalion, C. Company, which resulted in a greater degree of tactical independence for individual brigades.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/tab2.pl |title=Table from CAIN showing deaths per year |publisher=Cain.ulst.ac.uk |access-date=16 June 2010 |archive-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907234718/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/tab2.pl |url-status=live }}</ref> C. Company's hit squad, led by [[Stephen McKeag]], became notorious for a campaign of random murders of Catholic civilians in the first half of the 1990s.<ref>Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, ''UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror'', Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2004, p. 3</ref>

They benefited, along with the Ulster Volunteer Force, and a group called [[Ulster Resistance]] (set up by the [[Democratic Unionist Party]]), from a shipment of arms imported from [[Lebanon]] in 1988.<ref name="OBrien_92">O'Brien p.92</ref> The weapons landed included rocket launchers, 200 rifles, 90 pistols and over 400 grenades.<ref name="OBrien_92"/> Although almost two–thirds of these weapons were later recovered by the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC), they enabled the UDA to launch an assassination campaign against their perceived enemies.

[[Image:Innishargie.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A UFF mural in the [[Kilcooley estate]] in [[Bangor, County Down|Bangor]]]]
[[File:SandyRowMural.JPG|thumb|right|250px|A UFF mural in the [[Sandy Row]] area of South Belfast in 2007 (since painted over in 2012)]]

North Belfast UDA brigadier [[Davy Payne]] was arrested after his "scout" car had been stopped at a RUC checkpoint and large caches of the weaponry were discovered in the boots of his associates' cars. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

In 1992, [[Brian Nelson (Northern Irish loyalist)|Brian Nelson]], a prominent UDA member who served as the organisation's intelligence chief, was arrested by the [[Stevens Inquiries|Stevens Inquiry Team]]. It was subsequently uncovered that he was also an agent of the [[Force Research Unit]] (FRU), an undercover [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] unit. Over a period of two months, Nelson dictated a police statement covering 650 pages. He claimed that he had been tasked by his FRU handlers with transforming the UDA into a more effective force, particularly at carrying out killings. Using information supplied by his handlers, Nelson produced dossiers on proposed targets, which were passed on to UDA hitmen. Nelson was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison.<ref>Peter Taylor ''Loyalists''</ref><ref name=IndOb>''[[The Independent]]'' obituary for Brian Nelson, 14 April 2003</ref>

One of the most high-profile UDA attacks came in October 1993, when three masked men attacked a restaurant called the Rising Sun in the predominantly Catholic village of [[Greysteel]], [[County Londonderry]], where two hundred people were celebrating [[Halloween]]. The two men entered and opened fire. Eight people, including six Catholics and two Protestants were killed and nineteen wounded in what became known as the [[Greysteel massacre]]. The "UFF" claimed the attack was in retaliation to the IRA's [[Shankill Road bombing]], which killed nine people seven days earlier.

According to the Sutton database of deaths at the [[University of Ulster]]'s [[Conflict Archive on the Internet|CAIN project]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html|title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths|work=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]|publisher=Cain.ulst.ac.uk|access-date=16 June 2010|archive-date=24 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324044004/http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html|url-status=live}}</ref> the UDA was responsible for 259 killings during the Troubles. 220 of its victims were civilians (predominantly Catholics), 37 were other loyalist paramilitaries (including 30 of its own members), three were members of the security forces and 11 were republican paramilitaries. According to the [[Stevens Report|Stevens Enquiry]], a number of these attacks were carried out with the assistance or complicity of elements of the British security forces.<ref name=bbcmay2015>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32887445 "UK agents 'worked with NI paramilitary killers'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124023847/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32887445 |date=24 November 2018 }}, BBC News, 28 May 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20662412 "Pat Finucane murder: 'Shocking state collusion', says PM"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125004348/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20662412 |date=25 January 2021 }}, BBC. Retrieved 11 March 2015.</ref>  The preferred [[modus operandi]] of the UDA was individual killings of civilian targets in nationalist areas, rather than large-scale bomb or mortar attacks.

The UDA employed various codewords whenever they claimed their attacks. These included: "The Crucible", "Titanic", "Ulster Troubles" and "Captain Black".{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}