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Abbas outlaws Hamas-led police force

Richard Boudreaux and Maher Abukhater Los Angeles Times

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday outlawed the Hamas-led Interior Ministry’s police force, the most powerful armed unit outside his control in factional fighting that has left 33 people dead in the past month.

The ministry responded with defiance. It announced plans to double the size of the black-uniformed paramilitary force and vowed to resist Abbas’ order that its 6,000 members be incorporated into the security apparatus loyal to the president’s Fatah movement.

The announcements raised the prospect of an intensified armed standoff. Abbas’ only means of enforcing the order appeared to be coercive action by police and security units under his command, but they are relatively weak in the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ stronghold.

In an effort to strengthen Abbas, U.S. officials have said they expect to ask Congress for nearly $100 million in aid to help train and supply his expanding Presidential Guard. The Bush administration and Israel coordinated arms shipments to Abbas’ forces from Egypt.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet with Abbas here later this month to discuss efforts to weaken and isolate Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamic movement that leads the Palestinian government.

Hamas resists Abbas’ efforts to start peace talks with Israel, and refuses to recognize the Jewish state.

Saturday’s statement by Abbas came two days after a unit of the Interior Ministry police, known as the Executive Force, besieged the Gaza home of a Fatah commander, Col. Mohammed Ghareeb, killing him and his bodyguards and seriously wounding his wife and brother.

Hamas officials said Ghareeb had been responsible for the deaths of two of their fighters.

Intermittent fighting among the Palestinians erupted after elections a year ago created a division of power between the president and Hamas, which won control of Parliament and formed a government in March. The split paralyzed most governing institutions, and the rival movements began conducting politics through armed force.