In this Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 photo, Gen. Carter Ham, head of the U.S. African command, attends a conference on terrorism in the Sahara in Algiers, Algeria. A U.S. Army brigade will begin sending small teams into as many as 35 African nations in early 2013, part of an intensifying Pentagon effort to train countries to battle extremists and give the U.S. a ready and trained force to dispatch to Africa if crises requiring the U.S. military emerge. Ham, the top U.S. commander in Africa, noted that the brigade has a small drone capability that could be useful in Africa. But he also acknowledged that he would need special permission to tap it for that kind of mission. (AP Photo)
General: Many of Ghadafi's weapons unaccounted for
Published: 04:41:49 PM, Thu 07 March 2013 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief of the U.S. Africa Command is telling Congress that thousands of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons from the arsenal of deposed Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi remain unaccounted for in Africa and beyond.
Army Gen. Carter Ham tells the Senate Armed Services Committee some of those weapons, as well as explosives and other arms once under Ghadafi's control, have fallen into the hands of extremists in northern Mali. He says others have spread to rebel groups in Syria. The Ghadafi regime was overthrown in 2011.
Ham said at a hearing Thursday that he could not discuss details in public.
But he did say that a U.S. government effort to buy back portable anti-aircraft weapons from Libya has had only "modest success."
Tags:
african union, u.s. africa command, gen. carter ham, sahara, culture_politics, world war ii, africa, egypt, libya, sudan, senate armed services, northern mali, muammar al-gaddafi, libyan leader moammar, anti-aircraft weapons, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons, portable anti-aircraft weapons, u.s. government effort, ghadafi, ghadafi regime, modest success
