WASHINGTON, Dec 21 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH modern YORK MAYOR BLOOMBERG'S PRESS colloquy & ADDITIONAL DETAILS)

The United States announced Sunday that it has raised its five-scale terror alert of the same height to the second highest on a level in response to information from ''credible'' sources about attacks that could ''either rival or exceed'' the generation 11, 2001 attacks.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at a hastily arranged recently made knowns conference that the U.S. has raised the terror alert on a level from ''yellow'' to ''orange'' or high risk of terror attacks for the ongoing holiday season and beyond.

The ''orange'' horizontal is just below the highest alert of the same height of ''red'' or peremptory risk of imminent terrorist attacks.

He said the U has elevated the terror alert of the same height after receiving information from ''credible sources about near-term attacks that could either rival or exce what we experienced in succession Sept. 11'' in 2001

Ridge said that the al-Qaida terrorist network is still interested in using hijacked airplanes as weapons, prompting the U dominion to warn that the possibility of potential terrorism is ''perhaps greater now than at any point'' since the tribe 11, 2001.

In just discovered York, a target of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his city is taking a series of antiterror measure in reaction to the U government's action to raise its terror alert level

''We are stepping up our counterterrorism operations over the city,'' Bloomberg said at an impromptu recently made knowns conference. ''We are deploying an additional police resources as a eventuate of today's event.''

The mayor said a measures are visible and include increased police neighborhood at sensitive locations, including landmarks and financial institutions, and checkpoints forward major bridges and tunnels. Security is also being tightened at subway schemes and waterways, he added.

Bloomberg said that he is not aware of a specific cabal targeting New York. unless he said his city has to always act as if there were ''because it's the best way to restrain a terrorist attack.''

The mayor also noted that ''orange'' is the same on a level that New York City has been at since the introduction of the five-color scale in early 2002

Ray Kelly the city's police commissioner, said at the same pres meeting for consultation that the police are beefing up their antiterror operations by dint of assigning additional policemen and women to ''sensitive locations'' so as the New York Stock Exchange, religious facilities, media exits and transit systems.

''What we are doing is based forward reality that New York City remains at the top of the terrorists' target list,'' he said.

Ridge said at his pres conversation that there will be ''additional security'' at airports across the abiding habitation because civilian aircraft may be used again to attack guide targets in the U.S.

The U last raised the terror alert on a level to ''orange'' in May in the aftermath of suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. It at so early an hour lowered the level to ''yellow''

Ridge's statement followed a modern surge of information about possible terrorist threats to of the present day York, Washington, Los Angeles and other big cities.

The U announcement also came couple days after the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera aired a statement purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top representative that said al-Qaida is still after the Americans and their allies at hearth and abroad.

Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the U joint chiefs of staff, told Fox recently made knowns ''There is no doubt from all the intelligence we pick up from al-Qaida that they want to do away with our way of life.''

Myers, just new from a trip to Afghanistan and Iraq, separately told CB recents that the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the 2001 terror attacks, is intensifying.

''There are persons in this government and in other rules that are dedicated to finding him. I think it's just a matter of time before we do,'' he said. When asked if it is veritable he replied, ''Absolutely.''

The White House has warned Americans to be vigilant about potential terror strikes. President George W Bush's spokesman Scott McClellan said at a of recent origins briefing Friday, ''We have remained troubleed about the volume of reporting of threats.''

pair hijacked civilian jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center and another hijacked plane hit the Pentagon near Washington in succession the morning of tribe 11, 2001. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. About 3000 tribe died in the attacks.

The tribe 11, 2001 attacks led to the war in Afghanistan. The U said the invasion of Iraq earlier this year was part of its global antiterrorism campaign.

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