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Palestinian interior minister fires compromised security chiefs

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, March 4, 2005

RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority has launched a drive to replace errant security commanders.

PA officials said Interior Minister Nasser Yusef has warned that police and security commanders who refuse to obey orders would be immediately dismissed. Yusef has already carried out his threat in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Over the past 10 days, a series of security commanders have been replaced in the West Bank and Gaza Strip amid their refusal to crack down on Palestinian insurgency groups. They include the dismissal of Gaza security chief Maj. Gen. Abdul Razik Al Majaydeh.

On Tuesday, Yusef dismissed the commander of PA security forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin after the minister's convoy came under fire from Fatah insurgents. The insurgents were said to have been led by Fatah commander in the northern West Bank, Zakariya Zubeidi.

Officials said the Jenin security chief was fired after he refused to arrest Zubeidi and six other insurgents. Yusef then ordered the new commander to arrest the Fatah gunmen.

The showdown began when Yusef arrived in Jenin to investigate a series of attacks by Islamic Jihad against Israel. During Yusef's meeting in PA headquarters in Jenin, Zubeidi and his cohorts fired into the air and demanded that the interior minister leave the city.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has reiterated his pledge to reform PA security agencies. But Abbas did not say that the effort has begun.

"The most important message is our complete readiness to exert 100 percent effort in the domain of security," Abbas told a conference in London on Tuesday. "To that end, we deployed our troops on the ground and we took a final decision concerning the consolidation of the security agencies."

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces arrested Zubeidi's brother, Jibril, an Islamic Jihad insurgent accused of planning to fire missiles toward the Israeli city of Afula and attack a Jerusalem school.

Israeli sources said the 19-year-old Jihad operative failed to fire the missiles because of what they termed technical difficulties. On Wednesday, however, Israeli authorities declared an alert of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem and police reinforced roadblocks throughout the city.


Copyright © 2005 East West Services, Inc.

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