Smuggled Libyan weapons used in Sinai attack

An Egyptian security source has told Arabstoday that militants used weapons smuggled from Libya in an attack on a border outpost close to Palestine, which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers. The attack, which took place in Egypt's volatile Sinai peninsula on Sunday, saw "heavy weapons" being used by the militants. The sources said that security forces had found around 10 percent of the smuggled weapons, and that primary investigations found anti-aircraft machine guns in addition to other light weapons used in the NATO-backed Libyan revolution that resulted in the ouster of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Investigations have shown that the militants used Land Cruisers to start the attack stealing an armoured vehicle and other weapons from the outpost. The chairman of the Egyptian customs authority, Ahmed Farag Soudi, said: The Egyptian-Libyan borders were the main areas of smuggling operations due to security disruptions in both countries." The smuggling network in the region depends on the Matrouh and Saloum areas as main connecting points for their operations. Soudi said to Arabstoday: "The proliferation of smuggled weapons spread during the revolution, we must control our borders to stop the danger from spreading."  He added: "Now in Egypt we are doing everything possible to detect the smuggled goods." Secuirty expert Talat Bu Mosalam told Arabstoday: "The number of smuggled weapons from Libya are continually increasing, and thousands of weapons flow inside Egypt since the Libyan revolution, especially to Sinai." Around 576 weapons were found Siwa near the Libyan border in the last three months. It's believed that the number of purchased weapons may be five times the inspected amount. The weapons may also have increased street crime in Egypt, as armed robberies, carjacking and street cons are on the increase. Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahman el-Keeb declared during his visit to Cairo that he was "not able to determine whether the Libyan weapons were used in Sinai or not", but he admitted the presence of  weapon-smuggling operations to Egypt after the Libyan revolution.