The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority announced the appointment of a wanted guerilla leader to a new security post. Jamal Abu Samhadana was given the rank of colonel and selected to lead a new security force of Islamic militants that will only answer to Hamas.
Samhadana is a leader of the so-called Popular Resistance Committees, the group responsible for launching rocket attacks into Israel from the Gaza Strip. The group is also suspected of being involved in the attack on a U.S. Embassy convoy in October 2003 that killed three U.S. Marines acting as security guards.
Israel considers Samhadana a wanted man and he has been the target of at least one assassination attempt.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said Siyam would form a new security branch which would be answerable only to him.
'This force is going to include the elite of our sons from the freedom fighters and the holy warriors and the best men we have,' he claimed. 'It's going to include members of all the resistance branches.'
The goal is to bring law and order to the Palestinian streets, something which has been seriously lacking since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer.
In the past eight months, armed gangs have roamed the streets, often entering government buildings or kidnapping foreign nationals in an attempt to secure a government job.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah Party, had no comment on the appointment. Abbas has kept most PA security forces under his command to this point. The establishment of a rival security force may signal potential infighting between Palestinian groups.
Meanwhile, the United States was particularly displeased with the appointment. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the move showed 'the true nature and the true tactics of this particular Hamas-led government.'
What tactics the new security organization will use remains to be seen. It also is unknown whether or not the new group will be involved directly in attacks on Israel or foreign nationals.
