Israel Deploys 12,000 police for Y2K eve

[Guest guest]

Israel deploys record number of troops on millennium night

 

By JACK KATZENELL

 

Associated Press Writer

 

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel will deploy a record 12,000 police in Jerusalem

on New Year's Eve, Israel's police commissioner said Tuesday, amid

worldwide concern that terrorists may try to disrupt millennium

celebrations.

 

Commissioner Yehuda Wilk said he has not received concrete warnings about

possible terror attacks. "However, our working premise always is that the

will to carry out attacks exists," Wilk said.

 

He said the huge crowds expected in Jerusalem's walled Old City would pose

a tremendous challenge to security forces. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim

worshippers, as well as Christian pilgrims and observant Jews, will likely

crowd holy sites in Jerusalem on Dec. 31.

 

The millennium has no religious significance for Jews or Muslims, but New

Year's Eve falls on Friday, a holy day for both religions. In addition, it

is the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, a time when mosque attendance

traditionally swells.

 

Apprehension about security at millennium celebrations has been growing

since the arrests of 14 suspected Islamic militants in Jordan and one in

the United States over the past few days.

 

Jordanian authorities suspect the 14 were sent by fugitive Saudi

millionaire Osama bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding the

1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

 

U.S. authorities suspect that Algerian national Ahmed Ressin, arrested

last week for allegedly trying to smuggle explosives into the United

States, was also sent by bin Laden and has accomplices who have not yet

been caught.

 

Officials in Washington said both groups planned to attack American

targets.

 

Two members of the ring arrested in Jordan are also at large, said a

Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Although Israel

guards its border with Jordan carefully, people have managed to cross it

illegally in the past.

 

Apart from the threat from Islamic fundamentalists, Israeli officials fear

an attack on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem by Jewish or

Christian extremists. The mosque is Islam's third-holiest shrine and is

also located on the site of the first and second Jewish Temples.

 

The area is a potential flashpoint of religious conflict and is by far the

most sensitive spot in the Middle East.

 

Jewish extremists have plotted to blow up the mosque in the past in the

hope of rebuilding the temple, but were caught and received jail

sentences. Some Christian sects have professed the belief that the

rebuilding of the Jewish Temple will hasten the Second Coming of Jesus.

 

Three groups of Christian pilgrims have already been expelled by Israel,

one to Europe, the others to the United States.

 

Wilk, the police commissioner, said he would deploy a record 12,000

officers in Jerusalem on New Year's Eve, which also marks the last Friday

of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 

Some 400,000 Muslims attended prayers at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in

Jerusalem last Friday and the number could reach half a million on Dec.

31.

 

Some 3,000 police officers will be deployed on and around the Al Aqsa

compound alone. Video cameras have been installed in Jerusalem's walled

Old City to ensure the safety of the thousands of Christian pilgrims

expected to visit.

 

The combination of the end of Ramadan, the millennium and concerns about

possible emergencies caused by the Y2K computer bug have forced the

Israeli police to be ready for the worst possible scenarios, Wilk said.

 

AP-CS-12-21-99 1601EST