Security Experts: “How Did American Stinger Missiles Reach Libya?”

Analysts and security experts wonder about the real source of the American Stinger Missiles, that were seized by Algeria security forces in Oued Souf ‘southern Algeria), on the Libyan border, as the price of one missile of this type is 4.000.000 ZDZ.

“Serious questions are asked about how did this weapon reach Libya, on the grounds that Gadhafi’s gun cabinets contained only Russian made weapons, so how did this missiles exist in Libya, then?”

Security and Military expert, Benamar Benjana, told Echorouk: “U.S Stinger Missiles has the specifications of NATO weapons, and are anti-aircraft and helicopters, that are attached to the medium altitude and low up to the height of four thousand meters. They work with a thermal system which keeps track of heat and power of the engine and hit the target accurately.”

“What is astonishing is that Gadhafi, as is also known, had weapons which he bought from Russia, and the question is, how then this dangerous US arms reach Libya, and tried to enter Algeria as well.”

“Several hypotheses can be made, on the method of smuggling this type of weapons to Libya, the first one is that Gadhafi could have bought them from the mafia of peace through illegal ways, and the second hypothesis is the operations of landing the arms from French planes in the Nafusa west Mountains in 2011, and there is the possibility of landing this type of weapon at that time.”

“Third hypothesis is the possibility of bringing this dangerous weapon by fighters who returned from Syria’s terrorist organizations, and that is based on the recent statements of the Interior Ministry on this issue.”

“This is an attempt to introduce these missiles to Algeria in order to target the Algerian armed forces, and especially the helicopters and planes that are in the process of a continuous monitoring at the Libyan and Tunisian border. Terrorists are trying to target the planes during the take-off and landing.”

Former intelligence officer, Mohamed Khelfaoui, told Echorouk, that Algerian armed forces showed professionnalisme and good performance in accordance with the intensive intelligence work, noting that the process was aired in the media and this could give a greater strength to the sleeping terrorist groups.

“Most important issue is to know the parties which would need such weapons, including the American Stinger missiles. The announcement of the operation so seemed like the exploitation of half the information only, and it was better to entrap those who will need these weapons and arrested them all, whether those who worked on introducing them, or those who were waiting to get them.”

Stinger missile, officially known as the FIM-92A, is designed to give ground troops a way to deal with low-flying air planes and helicopters. From the perspective of soldiers on the ground, low-flying enemy aircraft are normally a problem because they are either bombing or strafing, doing surveillance work or inserting, extracting and resupplying enemy troops. Shooting down these aircraft is the easiest way to eliminate the threat.

Stinger missile is an extremely effective weapon for shooting down aircraft. The missile uses an infra-red seeker to lock on to the heat in the engine’s exhaust, and will hit nearly anything flying below 11,000 feet.