Iraq:US loss of control over the flood of weapons into Iraq was highlighted again yesterday when it emerged that Italian anti-Mafia investigators had uncovered an alleged shipment of 105,000 rifles of which the American high command was unaware.
The Italian team, in an investigation codenamed Operation Parabellum, stopped the $40 million (€29 million) sale and made four arrests. The consignment appears to have been ordered by the Iraqi interior ministry. The US high command in Baghdad admitted it had no knowledge of any such order, even though the ministry is supposed to inform the US before purchasing arms.
Lieut-Col Daniel Williams, of the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq, which is responsible for training the Iraqi army, said: "Iraqi officials did not make MNSTC-I aware that they were making purchases."
An Iraqi interior ministry official insisted the weapons were mostly for Iraqi police in Anbar province. But, given the close relationship between the Shia-led government and Shia militias and the irregular nature of the arms order, the disclosure prompted suspicion that the eventual destination could have been the militias, or police units close to them.
The aborted shipment comes only a week after a congressional investigation team found that the Pentagon could not account for 190,000 US-supplied weapons that had gone missing in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. It would have been another spectacular lapse to add to a growing list that began immediately after the invasion when the US failed to protect Iraqi army weapons dumps from looting and disbanded the army complete with weapons.
The anti-Mafia investigators stumbled on the deal, which had not been authorised by the Italian government, while shadowing a group of suspected Italian drug traffickers. Expecting to find drugs during a covert search of the luggage of a suspect boarding a flight to Libya early last year, police instead found helmets, bullet-proof vests and a weapons catalogue.
Subsequent telephone and e-mail interceptions led investigators to a group of Italian businessmen, including Massimo Bettinotti (39), who were arrested and face arms trafficking indictments in relation to Libya and Iraq.
Before the weapons were supplied, police made arrests on February 12th, including Mr Bettinotti, Gianluca Squarzolo (39), the man whose luggage had allegedly yielded the original clue, Ermete Moretti (55) and Serafino Rossi (64).
The Iraqi interior ministry refused to discuss the case publicly but an official, speaking off the record, confirmed that the ministry had sought the weapons.
Asked about the irregular channels used, he said the ministry "doesn't ask the supplier how these weapons are obtained".
Why the police in Anbar would need more weapons raises further questions. The Pentagon has issued 169,280 AK47s, 167,789 pistols and 16,398 machine guns to the 161,000 police in Iraq and 28,000 border police.
Meanwhile, the costs of the US operation continue to soar. The Washington Post has reported that the US military had paid $548 million to British security firms to protect the US Army Corps of Engineers, mainly civilians carrying out reconstruction work, more than $200 million over budget.
- (Guardian service)