Iraq explosives smuggled to Syria

Federal Police officials in Ninawa Governorate spoke of an influx of advanced explosives, manufactured locally in Iraq, being used by armed Syrian groups. Chief of the Third Division of the Federal Police in Ninawa, General Mahdi Gharrawi, told ‘Arabstoday’ that “smuggling weapons has become common, from Iraq to Syria or other areas”. Gharrawi explained: “The harm of these explosives will be doubled; especially now that Al-Qaeda has been able to introduce improvements to double their destructive ability and difficulty to detect.” He added: “Armed groups today have new local manufacturing techniques, like the explosive belts which could be attached to the abdomen or to any other place in the body, and a package of mortars which can be turned into an adhesive package” elaborating that “this package causes great harm, and its adhesion is very strong.” Gharrawi explained: “Federal Police now has numbers and names of pharmacies and companies supporting armed groups,” stressing that “security forces began to warn such companies many stopped funding these groups.” Observers pointed out that armed groups exporting weapons to Syria instead of importing them, like it used to be throughout the past, indicated Al-Qaeda’s shift towards building and promoting other branches outside Iraq, which contradicts with security assertions of the erosion of Al-Qaeda's influence in Iraq.