[Egyptian "Peace Partner"?] Palestinians' Weapons Route Traced To Sudan's Darfour

2005-12-20

Special To Worldtribune.com

www.worldtribune.com/ worldtribune/05/ front2453724. 956944444.html

LONDON - Palestinian insurgents have benefited from a steady supply of weapons and ammunition from Sudan.

Western intelligence sources said Sudan has been a major source of weaponry for such groups as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the ruling Fatah militia. The sources said the Sudanese weapons, delivered via Egypt, were far cheaper than from other places.

[On Sunday, Palestinian gunners fired a Kassam-class short-range missile into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, Middle East Newsline reported. The missile was said to have landed into a maximum security infrastructure facility in what Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz termed an increase in Palestinian capability.]

"It's [Sudan] become a huge source of weaponry for the Palestinians as well as for other militias in need of equipment," a source said. "There's an entire infrastructure that's proven highly reliable."

The sources said Palestinian insurgents began using the arms smuggling route from Sudan in 2003. They said the arms have come primarily from military surplus in the western Sudanese province of Darfour.

"From Darfour, Sudanese smugglers have transported the weaponry to Egypt. The equipment then was brought over the Suez Canal into the Sinai Peninsula."

"From the eastern Sinai town of Rafah, the weapons, ammunition and explosives were smuggled into the Gaza Strip."

The sources said that until 2004 Palestinian insurgency groups relied mostly on weapons and ammunition from Egypt and Yemen. But the groups turned to Sudan amid the war in Darfour, which sparked a huge weapons trade.

For years, Israel's mi itary refused to acknowledge the Sudan connection. Until 2005, Israeli military intelligence would cite Egypt and Yemen as the main sources of weaponry for the Palestinians.

Officials said smuggling has increased from the Sinai since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September 2005. They said Palestinian smugglers transported weapons from Sinai to the Gaza Strip via land and sea.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis