While Johnny Adair's 'C company' and the mainstream UDA are locked in an endless round of tit-for-tat attacks, the crucial balance of power remains on the sidelines.
Much has been written about Johnny Adair and the lower Shankill C company but little or nothing about the two other companies which make up the rest of the UDA's west Belfast brigade.
'A' company controls the Highfield and Glencairn areas of north Belfast while 'B' company is based in the Woodvale and mid-Shankill areas.
Loyalist sources admit that while C company and the mainstream UDA have reached an effective stalemate in the daily shooting and pipe-bomb attacks, the ultimate loyalties of A and B companies are likely to heavily impact on who will eventually win out in the four-month-old feud.
Running parallel to the mainstream UDA's attacks against Adair and his allies are attempts to persuade the two remaining west Belfast UDA companies to change sides.
While there have been countless attacks on loyalists associated with C company, there have been no known attacks towards A or B – even though both are on record as supporting Adair.
Loyalists admit that A and B are safe while they continue to be courted by the two rival factions of the UDA.
On the evening of September 10 when the UDA expelled John White and Johnny Adair from its ranks, the leaders of A and B made their way to see Adair in the lower Shankill.
A company at that time was led by an individual who is now serving a jail term for possession of security force documents.
Both men pledged their support to C company, insisting that an attack on Adair and White, was an attack on the whole west Belfast UDA brigade.
A representative from the north Belfast UDA was also at the meeting and is said to have also pledged support, but subsequently changed sides over to the mainstream group.
But crucially A and B backed Adair.
Privately mainstream UDA leaders admit that they effectively failed to isolate Adair and White by not persuading A and B companies to align themselves with the mainstream grouping.
Since then continuous efforts, both public and private, have been made to try and persuade A and B to transfer their loyalties away from Adair.
A company is currently being run by a west Belfast community worker who, ironically, is not only well liked by both sides of the UDA but also has strong links to the UVF in east Belfast.
B company is currently controlled by a man claimed to have been heavily involved in plotting the murder of Pat Finucane, allegedly at the behest of Special Branch.
He had come under pressure last year when a Panorama programme named him and claimed that he had worked as a Special Branch agent in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
It is understood that he only retained his position within the UDA because of the intervention from his jail cell of Johnny Adair, who argued that no action be taken against him.
Both men were also instrumental in brokering the end of the UDA/UVF feud in 2000.
But relationships between the lower Shankill and their west Belfast comrades have not always been so good.
There were bitter recriminations between Adair's C company and A and B during the UDA/UVF feud three years ago.
C Company were angry that the two other companies refused to become involved in the feud.
A and B for their part argued that the feud was a matter for C company and the UVF and that they would not be getting involved.
While the tensions were shelved when the UDA/UVF dispute was finally resolved, resentment was still felt among elements of C company.
That resentment was fuelled when gunmen from B company were to seen to operate jointly with UVF men during confrontations with the police at Cambria Street last year.
Knowledgeable loyalist sources claim that A and B's reluctance to transfer allegiances to the mainstream UDA is partly based on their close proximity to the neighbouring C company.
"They may not like everything which C company does but they know that if they changed sides they would be the first ones in the firing line from the lower Shankill," said one loyalist source.
"It is arguable that staying with C company is as much about self-preservation for them as anything else.
"There is no doubt that whoever A and B choose to align themselves to could sway the feud one way or the other.
"For their part they are seen as being straight players by people outside north Belfast and they just don't want to get involved on either side.
"If they did switch it would isolate C company.
"But if they stay as they are the mainstream UDA will be reluctant to touch them because they know that they're not really involved.
"It is vital for both C company and the mainstream UDA to have A and B on their side.
"As for A and B they're content where they are.
"The only thing hurting them at the moment is the splinters they're getting from sitting on the fence and that's they way they want it to stay."
