Report: Saudi, UAE Weapons End Up With Terrorist Groups
Local Editor
An investigative report by a Bulgarian journalist said Saudi Arabia and the UAE have supplied Eastern-European-made weapons to terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq using different intermediaries and diplomatic cover to mask their points of origin and final destinations.
The report, authored by Dilyana Gaytandzhiev, noted that Saudi Arabia, UAE, the US military and several countries have used Azerbaijani state-owned airlines Silk Way Airlines to transport large quantities of weapons that ended up in the hands of Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL' group], Kurdish fighters in the Middle East and armed groups in Africa.
"At least 350 diplomatic Silk Way Airlines flights transported weapons for war conflicts across the world over the last 3 years," said the report, published in Trud, Bulgaria's largest circulated newspaper.
"The state aircrafts of Azerbaijan carried on-board tens of tons of heavy weapons and ammunition headed to terrorists under the cover of diplomatic flights."
According to the report, "Saudi Arabia has purchased huge quantities of Eastern European weapons and exported them using Silk Way Airline's diplomatic flights.
"In 2016, 2017 there were 23 diplomatic flights carrying weapons from Bulgaria, Serbia and Azerbaijan to Jeddah and Riyadh".
Gaytandzhiev says in the report: "The Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] does not buy those weapons for itself, as the Saudi army uses only Western weapons and those weapons are not compatible with its military standard.
"Therefore, the weapons transported on diplomatic flights end up in the hands of terrorist militants in Syria and Yemen that Saudi Arabia officially admits supporting."
Citing leaked documents that detail flight paths and weapons cargo of the diplomatic flights, the report shows one aircraft loaded with mortars and anti-tank grenades including SPG-9 and GP-25 which were later discovered by the Iraqi army a month ago in a Daesh warehouse in Mosul.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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