Algeria Fears Terrorist Obtained the Lost Antiaircraft Missiles In Libya

Algeria concerns over the risk of arms being trafficked from the strife torn Libya to fall in the hands of terror groups are increasingly becoming real, as five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels, the New York Time newspaper revealed.

The newspaper said “the new leakage of the missiles, which are of the same type that Algeria has said have already been trafficked over Libya’s borders, underscores the organizational weakness of the forces opposed to Colonel Qaddafi,” adding that “it also raises concerns that if more Gaddafi depots fall to the rebels, then further stocks of the weapons could become accessible to black markets.”

The source added that rebels in Libya have left many times boxes full of arms behind them in the sand, and “the boxes had not been there during a visit to the same spot a few days before, and the weapons were gone.” This confirms that arm traffickers may have obtained those boxes and sold them to terror groups in neighbouring countries, including Algeria. 

NYT reporter said “the stenciled markings showed each crate had contained a pair of lightweight missiles called SA-7s — early Soviet versions of the same class of weapon as the better known American-made Stingers, which were used by Afghan fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was not clear who had taken them. The rebel guards variously blamed Qaddafi forces and misinformed opposition fighters.”

The reporter has quoted American officials and Western security analysts as saying that there are grave worries that once the weapons inherited by rebels have been made accessible and reach unsupervised hands, opportunistic smugglers can match them to potential buyers.

The reporter was told by Andrew J. Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, that the unsecured missiles in Libya is “one of the things that keep me up at night.”

Two other American officials, speaking anonymously to the newspaper said that after the initial leakage of the SA-7s the American government repeatedly asked the National Transitional Council, the de facto rebel authority, to collect and secure the missiles and to prevent more missiles from getting loose.