Israeli police officers foiled a likely terror attack by four suspects on Sunday near Nabi Musa in the Jordan Valley. Nabi Musa is an Islamic holy site near the ancient city of Jericho, now a part of the Palestinian Authority.
The terrorists, armed with loaded M-16 assault rifles, were arrested near the site after allegedly threatening hikers in the area.
Interestingly, the weapons they held were engraved with “Property of the US government.”
Palestinian Authority security forces were issued such weapons by American military forces from 2007 to 2010 during their training in Jordan as part of the Bush Administration’s 2003 Roadmap for Peace plan.
The US and other nations who sponsored the plan equipped and trained Palestinian Authority recruits to create a Palestinian Authority National Security Force in anticipation of an eventual final status agreement with Israel that would lead to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.
According to a subsequent Government Accountability Office (GAO) document dated May 12, 2010, the State Department spent more than $160 million to help fund and support the training and approximately $89 million to provide “nonlethal” equipment.
“Although US and international officials said that US security
assistance programs for the PA have helped to improve security
conditions in some West Bank areas, State and USSC have not
established clear and measurable outcome-based performance indicators
to assess progress. Thus, it is difficult to determine how the
programs support the achievement of security-related Roadmap
obligations,” the GAO said regarding the effectiveness of the program.
Numerous former and some current Palestinian Authority security officers have since used their US-issued weapons to launch terror attacks against Israeli civilians and security personnel with whom they were expected to work together to maintain a peaceful environment in Judea and Samaria.
“The terrorists and weaponry that was located will be transferred to the security forces. No injuries were reported,” the IDF reported.
