King directs gov’t to increase guards at Al Aqsa

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday directed the government to immediately begin with administrative procedures to appoint 50 new guards at Al Aqsa Mosque to bolster security there in light of the continuing Israeli assaults on Islam’s third holiest site. 

The Monarch, the custodian of Jerusalem’s holy sites, had received letters from Sheikh Mohammad Azzam Khatib, the director of Jerusalem’s awqaf department, and  Sheikh Abdul Azim Salhab, who heads the Jerusalem awqaf council, outlining the Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa and calling on His Majesty to increase the number of guards.