Posted on 12/15/2004 9:19:16 AM PST by Destro
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Albania seizes missiles bound for Macedonia
TIRANA, Dec 14 (Reuters) Albanian police have seized three shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles and arrested four people accused of smuggling the weapons from Montenegro and attempting to send them to Macedonia, police said today.
The Yugoslav-made Strela 2M shoulder-fired missiles, akin to U S Stinger missiles, came from the stock of the Yugoslav army and had been bought for 100,000 euros in Bosnia.
Montenegrin and Albanian police had watched the group for months before arresting them near Tirana, a police statement said.
Police sources were quoted as saying the missiles were on the way to Macedonia when discovered under a consignment of meat in trucks.
Officials said the Strela 2M is the radar-evading weapon used by the Yugoslav army to bring down a U S F-117 stealth fighter in 1999 soon after NATO began bombing Serbia to force its troops out of Kosovo and end repression of ethnic Albanians.
An ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement emerged in neighbouring Macedonia two years later and fought security forces for 7 months before NATO powers brokered a peace.
The guerrillas disarmed in 2001 and their party is now part of the Macedonian government.
Reforms favouring ethnic Albanians have gone forward. A referendum bid by Macedonian nationalists to block a law giving the Albanian minority more rights failed in November.
But not all of Macedonia's Albanians are content. Gunmen have appeared in guerrilla uniform again in one village near the capital, Skopje, apparently to convey the message they are still there should the power-sharing process get bogged down.
Strela 2M, unless I am wrong, is the SA-7, which is more comparable to the old Redeye than the Stinger.
Still bad news for somebody.
Never led media try to ident equipment! The Strela 2 is the SA-7 GRAIL. This is a man-portable SAM. The missile which brought down the F-117 over Serbia was the SA-3 (GOA). It's like trying to compare a US Redeye SAM with a US HAWK SAM!
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