Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Libya has become a leading weapons supplier to Syria.

The United Nations has determined that weapons and ammunition were sent from Libya to Syria.

The UN report, relayed to the Security Council, said the military equipment was sent to Syrian rebels by sea and air.

“There have been an increasing number of reported cases of trafficking of arms and ammunition from Libya to the Syrian Arab Republic by sea and air,” the report said.

On Sept. 16, the council’s committee on Libyan sanctions said weapons were flowing from the North African state at an alarming rate. The panel said the weapons, stolen from the former regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, fueled the Libyan black market.

“Despite those efforts, however, the proliferation of arms and
ammunition across Libya’s borders, and an increasing number of reported
cases of trafficking in such materiel to Syria by sea and air were
worrying,” the panel said. “Additionally, the report said that increasing
demand for personal and small arms had boosted imports into Libya’s civilian
black market, and that third countries had carried out several seizures.”

The panel said members of the Gadhafi family found safe haven in Arab
states. At one point, two of Gadhafi’s children, Aisha and Mohammed, were
living in Algeria and Oman.

The Security Council decided to investigate several large arms shipment
from Libya in 2013. No additional details were released.

  ammunition from Libya shipped to Syria, Moammar Gadhafi, UN Security Council, UN: ‘Increasing number’ of arms