At a captured arms depot in Libya, scavengers have raided ammunition, including crates of portable missiles called SA-7s. Bryan Denton for The New York TimesAntiaircraft Missiles On The Loose In Libya -- New York Times
GA’A, Libya — Five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles — weapons that governments fear could be obtained by terrorists and then fired at civilian jetliners — have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels.
In February, in the early stages of the uprising, large numbers of the missiles slipped from the hands of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government as the rebels established control over eastern Libya and the ammunition depots there. The leakage resumed recently with rebel gains here in the western mountains, which opened up new ammunition stores.
Read more ....
My Comment: If airliners start falling down (from SAM missile attacks) in the months to come .... looted Libyan arms depots will obviously be on the top of the list of possible sources for this weaponry. The best way to secure these sites is to have Western troops on the ground at these sites .... but present day politics makes such an undertaking impossible to implement. Let us hope that it will not take a dozen jetliners being shot down and killing 3,000+ people that will change this point of view.
1 comment:
There are already units tracking and destroying looted SAM-7s. And semtex and other material.
Note the absence of Iraqi weapons after the looting of stockpiles after March 2003. Scrap metal, office equipment, automobiles appeared in other nations -- but not high-explosive and anti-aircraft missiles. Why?
Photos and reports of the destruction of weapons, explosives, and the gangs moving the material do not reach the New York Times. G H Frost
Post a Comment