http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/weapons-seized-in-nigeria-came-from-iran-1.321975
Latest update 17:57 30.10.10
Weapons seized in Nigeria 'came from Iran'
Claim by shipping company lends weight to suspicions that cargo of rocket
launchers, grenades and explosives was destined for Hamas.
By Reuters
Story Highlights
a.. Containers were loaded in Iran, shipping firm says
b.. Weapons disguised as building materials
Crates of weapons including rocket launchers and mortars seized in Nigeria this
week were loaded in Iran by a local trader, the company which shipped the
containers said on Saturday.
French-based shipping group CMA CGM said it had been the victim of a false
cargo declaration and that the weapons and ammunitions were in sealed
containers which had been declared as "packages of glass wool and pallets of
stone".
an illegal arms shipment seized by authorities in Lagos, Nigeria.
Photo by: AP
Nigeria's secret service intercepted the 13 containers in the country's main
port of Lagos - one of Africa's busiest - this week and said it found rocket
launchers, grenades and other explosives and ammunition.
"The shipment in question was booked as a 'shipper's owned container' and
supplied loaded and sealed by the shipper, an Iranian trader who does not
appear on any 'forbidden persons' listing," CMA CGM said in a statement.
"The containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas and discharged in Lagos in July,"
it said, adding it was cooperating fully with local and international agencies
investigating the shipment.
Israeli media reports, citing Israeli defence officials, have suggested the
weapons may have been destined for Hamas Islamists in Gaza and that a new
smuggling route was being tested. Israel's foreign ministry has declined to
comment.
Israel says its arch-foe Iran bankrolls attempts to ship weapons to the Gaza
Strip by sea or land routes. Iran says its support for Hamas is diplomatic
only.
The Iranian embassy in Nigeria said it may issue a statement on the arms
seizure in the coming days.
Heavy mortars
The weapons shown to journalists in Lagos this week included 107mm rockets,
designed to attack static targets and used by armies to support infantry units.
Security experts say they have also been used by groups including the Taliban
in Afghanistan
and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Nigeria's secret service has said it is too soon to speculate on where the
weapons were going and that investigations are continuing. The customs service
said the only
documentation it had seen was the manifest and could not immediately confirm
the containers had come from Iran.
CMA CGM said the containers had been held by customs since arriving in Lagos in
July. It is not unusual for shipments to take several months to pass through
customs clearance in the port, one of the busiest on the continent.
The French shipping firm said the shipper had requested that the containers be
re-loaded and shipped to Gambia, further round the West African coast, and that
it had obtained customs documents and clearance for the voyage.
But the Nigerian authorities blocked the goods before they could be
re-exported, it said.
The seizure has heightened concerns about national security in Africa's most
populous nation months ahead of elections.
It came weeks after car bombs killed at least 10 people near an independence
day parade in the capital Abuja on Oct. 1.
Militant groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta have been illegally supplied
weapons for years and Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group in the north, is
also believed to have received illegal arms, raising questions about border
surveillance.
The authorities have said they have stepped up security in the wake of both the
Abuja bombings and the Lagos seizure.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
