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Syria Rebels Get Libyan Weapons

(New York Times) C. J. Chivers, Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti - Evidence points to an active multinational effort, financed largely by Qatar, to transport arms from Libya to Syria's opposition fighters. Libya's own former fighters, who sympathize with Syria's rebels, have been eager collaborators. Yet once inside Syria the flow branches out. Extremist fighters, some of them aligned with al-Qaeda, have the money to buy the newly arrived stock, and many rebels are willing to sell. For Russia this black-market flow is a case of bitter blowback. Many of the weapons Moscow sold to Libya in the Soviet era are now being shipped to the rebels seeking to unseat another Kremlin ally.
2013-06-24 00:00:00
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