(MEED.com) Two men were detained at Beirut airport on Tuesday accused of smuggling military equipment to Iraq from Belarus, disguised as containers of food. Helmets for tank crews, wireless communications sets for tanks, and uniforms were impounded, apparently before they were to be driven overland through Syria to Iraq. The U.S. suspects that much of Baghdad's military equipment comes in from Syria: Damascus imports large quantities of oil from Iraq and a large volume of overland trucking and railway traffic flows between the two countries. Three Iraqi defectors who fled in 2001 and 2002 reported anti-aircraft missiles, rockets, and Scud missile guidance systems arriving from the Czech Republic under Syrian and Yemeni export licenses.
2003-01-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive