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Monday, August 3, 2009

U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces reluctant to face down Fatah 'thugs'

RAMALLAH — Palestinian Authority security forces have balked at stopping attacks by Fatah operatives.   

Palestinian sources said PA security forces trained by the United States refused to protect a music festival in the West Bank city of Nablus in late July. The sources said officers from the PA National Security Forces and police allowed Fatah militants to burn down the so-called Nablus Shopping Festival in protest of the Western influence.

"These were forces who underwent what the United States insisted was the best training possible and they were scared to face a handful of thugs," a PA security source said.


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The PA has confirmed the attack by three masked gunmen, which shut down the event on July 27. But an organizer of the festival, Taysir Nasrallah, said.

Israel Army troops prevented PA security forces from guarding the event. "They saw the arson [of the stage], but they couldn't stop it because of security arrangements with Israel," Nasrallah said.

But both Israeli and Palestinian sources dismissed Nasrallah's assertion. They said PA police and NSF units, which numbered at least 500 officers, refused to stop Fatah operatives because of lack of clear orders from security commanders. U.S. security envoy Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, who promoted the festival, was not in Nablus during the arson.

"Everybody knew this was planned and financed by the United States and the security arrangements were set by Dayton," a Fatah official in Nablus said. "This was a way to show Dayton and the PA who controls the city."

Dayton pressed the Israel Army to reduce restrictions on Palestinian travel throughout the West Bank to ensure a successful festival, the opening of which was attended by Arab and Western diplomats as well as PA Prime Minister Salam Fayad. The sources said the army expanded Palestinian traffic to Nablus as well as additional PA forces into the city, regarded as the economic capital of the West Bank. About 500 NSF troops, trained in a U.S.-financed facility in Jordan, have been deployed in Nablus throughout the last year.

Palestinian sources said Fatah opposed the Nablus festival and warned that it would be sabotaged. They said Fatah gunmen warned NSF and police not to protect the event despite U.S. support.

After two days of the festival, which included rap and rock music, Fatah operatives entered the festival area in downtown Nablus, poured gasoline on the two stages and set them on fire. The sources said PA police stationed at the site did nothing.

This was said to have been the second major failure by U.S.-trained PA security forces in Nablus over the last three months. In April, NSF and police units, directed by Dayton's team, failed to raid Fatah militia strongholds in the Old City of Nablus.

The sources said Fatah gunmen opened with heavy fire toward the 300-member PA force in the Old City. The PA troops retreated and eventually the operation was called off.

"We're talking about maybe a dozen Fatah gunmen, no more," another Palestinian source said. "NSF has failed miserably when it comes to stopping Fatah criminals."



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