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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Missile guide sparks alarm |
| 2013-06-12 |
| The photocopies of the manual lay in heaps on the floor, in stacks that scaled one wall, like Xeroxed, stapled handouts for a class. Except that the students in this case were al-Qaeda fighters in Mali. And the manual was a detailed guide, with diagrams and photographs, on how to use a surface-to-air missile capable of downing a commercial aircraft. The 26-page document in Arabic, recovered by AP in a building that had been occupied by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu, strongly suggests the group now possesses the SA-7 surface-to-air missile, known to the Pentagon as the Grail. And it confirms that the al-Qaeda cell is actively training its fighters to use these weapons, also called man-portable air-defence systems, or Manpads, which likely came from the arms depots of ex-Libyan strongman Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. "The existence of what apparently constitutes a 'Dummies Guide to Manpads' is strong circumstantial evidence of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb having the missiles," said Atlantic Council analyst Peter Pham, a former adviser to the United States' military command in Africa and an instructor to US Special Forces. "Why else bother to write the guide if you don't have the weapons? ... If AQIM not only has the Manpads, but also fighters who know how to use them effectively," he added, "then the impact is significant, not only on the current conflict, but on security throughout North and West Africa, and possibly beyond." |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #6 So this info is being ferreted out by Human Rights Watch and AP. What's the CIA doing? Oh, right, watching CRTs and going to trainings and related boondoggles. |
| Posted by: KBK 2013-06-12 20:39 |
| #5 Besides 4 dead Americans and a Hildebeast chirping "what difference does it make", what did we get for our $40 Million USD ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-06-12 15:45 |
| #4 ...which likely came from the arms depots of ex-Libyan strongman Colonel Muammar Gaddafi out of the Bengazi |
| Posted by: Jay Carney 2013-06-12 15:43 |
| #3 Possibly as many as 40. But who knows. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-06-12 15:36 |
| #2 ...which likely came from the arms depots of ex-Libyan strongman Colonel Muammar Gaddafi out of the Bengazi embassy warehouses! |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2013-06-12 15:22 |
| #1 Syrian "rebel" firing http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=763_1370898388 |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-06-12 14:25 |