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Abbas forces overrun part of Gaza after polls call
More yummy Red-on-Red violence.
GAZA - Forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas overran a Hamas ministry and sealed off the area around his compound on Sunday as the threat of violence hung over Gaza following the president’s call for new elections.

Members of Abbas’s elite presidential guard, a near 4,000-strong, U.S.-backed force, took over the Hamas-run Agriculture Ministry and sent employees home, part of a move to secure a large area of downtown Gaza City where Abbas lives.

Hundreds of heavily armed men patrolled the streets and turned cars back. They were joined by masked members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group loyal to Abbas’s Fatah movement. Some carried rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The security clampdown followed a dawn raid by masked gunmen on a training camp used by the presidential guard in which one guard officer was killed and at least five others were wounded, security sources said. The raid involved dozens of gunmen in uniforms similar to those worn by Hamas militants, a senior member of the presidential guard said, but Hamas denied any involvement.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Hamas, which controls the government, has accused Abbas of launching a coup after he announced plans on Saturday for early presidential and parliamentary elections in a bid to break months of deadlock and get international sanctions lifted.
Posted by: Steve White 2006-12-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=175365