New York Beefs up Security After Strikes on Afghanistan: Mayor

New York Sunday implemented a special security action plan to guard against new terrorist attacks following the US-led military strikes on Afghanistan, Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

Giuliani said additional armed police officers and National Guard units were deployed at sensitive sites around the city in line with the pre-prepared plan.

"We have heightened security, we have had that for some time and that has been increased as a result of the action in Afghanistan," Giuliani told reporters.

"The core of the plan is that there is a significant additional number of armed police officers and members of the National Guard who will be guarding sensitive areas, areas that we think might be subject to attack," he said.

Giuliani said the plan had been drawn up following the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which left some 5,300 people dead or missing.

But he said it was based on security measures created for the millennium celebrations in New York and the trial of Islamic militants accused of the bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.

U.S. and British forces Sunday launched attacks on targets in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network are based. Bin Laden is accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Giuliani said new measures would also come into force at airports and at all entry and departure points into the city.






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