New pro-Fatah militia takes to streets in Jenin

JENIN, West Bank, June 4 (Reuters) Members of a new, unarmed security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed in Jenin today in a move that residents feared could provoke clashes with rival factions.

Around 2,500 young men have volunteered for the ''Special Protection Unit'' formed under the banner of Abbas's Fatah movement in a West Bank city that has long been a Fatah stronghold.

Dressed in black, with t-shirts carrying a picture of former President Yasser Arafat and the words ''God is Greatest'', the unpaid militia is supposed to reinforce the regular police, the group's leader, Atah Abu Rameileh, said.

The creation of the unit, the first of its kind in the West Bank, follows the formation last month of a 3,000-strong militia loyal to Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, which defeated Fatah in elections in January, now heads the Palestinian government and is locked in an increasingly fractious power struggle with its rival. Gunmen from the groups have clashed in Gaza in recent weeks.

Members of the Jenin militia were standing in the shade of trees and at street corners on Sunday after having marched in the city yesterday in a show of support for Abbas. The town was quiet.

Some residents said they were angry at the creation of the unit and feared clashes with Hamas loyalists in the town.

''They are mercenaries working against the Hamas-led government,'' one resident said. Others described the unit as ''boyish'' and said it would do little to maintain law and order.

Hamas leaders said the militia was illegal.

''This is an outlawed force,'' Omar Abdel-Razeq, who serves as finance minister in the Hamas-led government, told reporters.

''This is unbelievable that each faction deploys members in the streets and says it is a back-up force.'' REUTERS SY KN1405