Abbas Fires West Bank Security Chief

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152258,00.html ^ | Saturday, April 02, 2005 | AP

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RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas fired the top West Bank security chief Saturday and said he would retire hundreds of senior officers, serving notice of a shakeup of security forces long demanded by the United States.

Abbas had been criticized for not moving fast enough to reform his flabby security apparatus, seen as largely ineffective in reining in Palestinian militants. Saturday's decision sent the strongest signal since Abbas took office in January that he is serious about cleaning house. The Palestinian Authority (search) has 45,000 to 50,000 security officers on its payroll.

"We will not allow anyone to take the law into his own hands and sabotage our situation," Abbas said, criticizing the security services for not doing their job.

The international community, led by the United States, has long demanded that the Palestinians streamline their corruption-plagued security forces, which under the late Yasser Arafat (search) ballooned into nearly a dozen rival branches with often overlapping authorities.

Abbas had come under growing pressure at home to take action after gunmen shot up his offices and rampaged through Ramallah (search) on Wednesday.

The gunmen were loyal to West Bank security chief Ismail Jaber (search), who was relieved of his command Saturday. The local security chief in Ramallah, Younis Al-Aas, was also dismissed.

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This could turn into something interesting......