| Sourced to HRW so who really knows? But the implications are disturbing. |
At newly discovered weapons-storage sites, thousands of shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) are unaccounted for. At one unguarded facility, empty packing crates and documents reveal that 482 sophisticated Russian SA-24 missiles were shipped to Libya in 2004, and now are gone. With a range of 11,000 feet, the SA-24 is Moscow's modern version of the American "stinger," which in the 1980s helped the US-backed Afghan mujahideen turn their war against the Soviet Union.
With Libya already facing great uncertainty in the post-Qaddafi era, seepage from unsecured weapons stores could further threaten its nascent revolutionary government by arming a loyalist insurgency -- or providing regional rebel groups and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb with a lethal arsenal.
"If these weapons fall in the wrong hands, all of North Africa will be a no-fly zone," says Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who has brought a number of weapons-storage sites to the NTC's attention.
"That's the Western concern," Mr. Bouckaert tells journalists at the site, noting the interest of Al Qaeda affiliates and regional insurgents in being able to easily target aircraft. "But what poses the biggest danger to Libyan people -- as we know from Iraq -- is what's laying right behind you ... all of these tank shells and mortars, because that's what people turn into car bombs."
| The issue here is whether the LTC can provide stability and security to the country or whether it devolves into prolonged civil war ala Somalia. If the latter, the factions will find weapons, whether said weapons come from local warehouses or are shipped in from elsewhere. There's no shortage of guns and ammo in Somalia... |
"So Western intelligence agencies have been calling us for information about the SAMs; [but] they're not too interested in the stuff that's going to hurt the Libyans, which is what's still here to loot," said Bouckaert.
| In other words, western intel agencies prioritize in favor of protecting their own countries first. I find that reassuring though Mr. Bouckaert (unexpectedly?) does not... |
At an education ministry book-storage and printing facility in southern Tripoli that was turned into a makeshift weapons depot, the long green shipping crates for the shoulder-fired SA-24 -- along with crates that once contained older versions, the SA-7 and SA-14 -- were found empty. It is adjacent to a Khamis Brigade base commanded by and named after one of Qaddafi's sons.
The SA-24s shipped to Libya apparently can't be shoulder-fired without a different trigger, and must be mounted on a truck, an unnamed senior official of the Russian KBM Machine-building design bureau told Aviation Week last March.
| So the Iranians will be on the black market next for triggers. In the meantime, we've finally found a use for disposable Ford F-150s... |
Anti-Qaddafi forces had already taken portions of this stockpile for their own use, shortly after Tripoli fell to rebels, according to a young man who lives nearby. Last week, 10 of the SA-7s were seen on an anti-Qaddafi vehicle -- the clue that led HRW to this site.
Across the street on the edge of a sandy field, loyalist forces had also tucked away some 12,000 mines -- many of them stacked in crates along the wall and concealed with camouflage netting. On Wednesday, a day after being alerted by HRW, men working for the NTC lifted crates into two large trucks for removal.