Algerian troops find arms cache on Libyan border

October 25, 2013 by Agency Reporter. Algerian troops have discovered a huge cache of weapons near the border with Libya, including surface-to-air missiles, rockets and landmines, an Algerian security source said on Thursday. “It is an arsenal of war,” the Algerian source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Algeria and Libya’s other neighbors are worried about a dangerous spillover from growing turmoil in that country as Tripoli’s fragile central government struggles to contain militias and Islamist militants operating in its lawless southern desert. The source said the weapons found in Illizi in southern Algeria likely belonged to militants. They included 100 anti-aircraft missiles and hundreds of anti-helicopter rockets, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades. The area is about 200 kms (125 miles) from the Amenas gas plant, which was attacked in January by Islamist militants in an assault launched from inside Libya that killed nearly 40 foreign contractors. o� > s - �e `e id-align: none;text-autospace:none;vertical-align:middle’>“Those who can come to Turkey, they are the lucky ones, those who are back in Syria, they do not have anything to eat, they do not have hospitals, medicines, anything,” Davutoglu said. In an allusion to divided global powers who dominate the UN Security Council, he criticised those responsible for a failure to see through a council resolution to come to grips with the Syrian crisis. “Snipers are shooting pregnant ladies,” he said, citing recent media reports. Civilians without access to food are being forced to eat cat and dog meat to survive, Davutoglu said at a news conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart. Kuwait, which plans to host an international humanitarian aid conference for Syria in January, said countries bordering Syria were struggling to cope with the stream of displaced people and warned of violence spilling over Syrian borders. “The situation in Syria is very dangerous, this is as we warned from the beginning, because the blood will not be contained in Syria but will spread into the region,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Hamad al-Sabah said. “Syria is sliding towards becoming a rogue state, a failed state, a state where extremist ideas, drugs, weapons and outlaws spread.” Syria’s civil war has been replete with atrocities, including chemical weapons strikes into populated areas, and al Qaeda and other radical Islamists increasingly dominate the ranks of rebel forces. Kuwait has condemned the bloodletting in Syria but unlike some other Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar it has not thrown its weight behind Syrian opposition fighters, preferring to organize humanitarian donations. Kuwait hosted a fundraising conference in January this year which pledged more than $1.5 billion in aid, with contributions mainly from wealthy Gulf Arab states.You are here: Home / News / Africa / Algerian troops find arms cache on Libyan border Algerian troops find arms cache on Libyan border Algerian troops have discovered a huge cache of weapons near the border with Libya, including surface-to-air missiles, rockets and landmines, an Algerian security source said on Thursday. “It is an arsenal of war,” the Algerian source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Algeria and Libya’s other neighbors are worried about a dangerous spillover from growing turmoil in that country as Tripoli’s fragile central government struggles to contain militias and Islamist militants operating in its lawless southern desert. The source said the weapons found in Illizi in southern Algeria likely belonged to militants. They included 100 anti-aircraft missiles and hundreds of anti-helicopter rockets, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades. The area is about 200 kms (125 miles) from the Amenas gas plant, which was attacked in January by Islamist militants in an assault launched from inside Libya that killed nearly 40 foreign contractors. o� > s - �e `e id-align: none;text-autospace:none;vertical-align:middle’>“Those who can come to Turkey, they are the lucky ones, those who are back in Syria, they do not have anything to eat, they do not have hospitals, medicines, anything,” Davutoglu said. In an allusion to divided global powers who dominate the UN Security Council, he criticised those responsible for a failure to see through a council resolution to come to grips with the Syrian crisis. “Snipers are shooting pregnant ladies,” he said, citing recent media reports. Civilians without access to food are being forced to eat cat and dog meat to survive, Davutoglu said at a news conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart. Kuwait, which plans to host an international humanitarian aid conference for Syria in January, said countries bordering Syria were struggling to cope with the stream of displaced people and warned of violence spilling over Syrian borders. “The situation in Syria is very dangerous, this is as we warned from the beginning, because the blood will not be contained in Syria but will spread into the region,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Hamad al-Sabah said. “Syria is sliding towards becoming a rogue state, a failed state, a state where extremist ideas, drugs, weapons and outlaws spread.” Syria’s civil war has been replete with atrocities, including chemical weapons strikes into populated areas, and al Qaeda and other radical Islamists increasingly dominate the ranks of rebel forces. Kuwait has condemned the bloodletting in Syria but unlike some other Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar it has not thrown its weight behind Syrian opposition fighters, preferring to organize humanitarian donations. Kuwait hosted a fundraising conference in January this year which pledged more than $1.5 billion in aid, with contributions mainly from wealthy Gulf Arab states.