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Missile guide sparks alarm
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 2013-06-12 |
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