Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Al Qaida has been stockpiling surface-to-air missiles in Algeria.

Security sources said Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb was storing a arsenal of up to a thousand SAMs in Algeria.

The sources said AQIM was also acquiring anti-tank missiles and other weapons for operations throughout North Africa.

“The terrorists have managed to acquire everything they need for a long-term war,” a source said.

On Oct. 24, Algeria disclosed the discovery of a suspected AQIM arsenal near the border with Libya. The arsenal was said to have contained nearly 1,000 SAM models, most of them shoulder-fired weapons that could down
helicopters and low-flying planes.

The AQIM cache was found by Algerian security forces in Ilizi in
southern Algeria near Libya and Mali. The sources said AQIM was believed to
have been purchasing weapons from militias that control the stockpile of the
former Libyan regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

The sources said the stockpile could be used to aid AQIM’s regional
expansion. They cited Al Qaida operations in Tunisia, which included a
battle on Oct. 23 in which seven police officers were killed.

  Al Qaida said storing huge arsenal of SAMs in Algeria, anti-tank missiles, AQIM, Moammar Gadhafi