Regards, Ivan
Posted on 10/09/2004 10:42:31 AM PDT by MadIvan
NEW DELHI: The trail of rockets, exploded and unexploded is now snaking not only around the Indian capital, but also extending to foundries as far as Jaipur. But where is this deadly cargo coming from and could it have more than just elementary explosives?
So far, Army engineers examining the ordnance concealed in cargoes of metal scrap imported from companies in the Persian Gulf, haven't disclosed the source, but scrap dealers who export tonnes to India daily say that the rockets and shells that have killed at least 10 people in Ghaziabad are likely to have been shipped out of Iraq and the Kurdistan region.
The scrap is brought out of Iraq by enterprising Iraqi businessmen, who have over the last two years benefited from Saddam Hussein's programmes to dismantle military establishments as the heat was turned on by UN and more lately from the mounds of debris left by US bombings.
"The scrap comes in through the border trade post of Khosravi, near the Iranian town of Qasr-e-Shirin, on the Iran-Iraq border and is brought in by Iraqi trucks," Ali Khosrani, a scrap trader for Alam Enterprise International Ltd. told the Times of India on telephone from Bandar Abbas.
Khosrani said its impossible to sift through mixed metal scrap once its brought into storage yards. Thereafter, its just loaded into containers by weight and shipped out. "Of course there are parts of tanks and engines, but most of it is harmless," he said.
The only indication given by Indian authorities that the shells which have exploded in a Ghaziabad scrap warehouse were from Iraq was an agency report quoting Army officers as saying that some of the shells had Iraqi markings.
Scrap from Iraq caught international attention last month when the UNSC discussed a report behind closed doors on how scrap that could be used to make WMD.
Regards, Ivan
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