IRAQ THE MODEL

This afternoon, I watched a report on Al-Hurra TV about a couple of successful operations for the Iraqi security forces in which huge amounts of weapons and ammunition were found; one was by the IP in Najaf city while the other was by the National Guards in Baghdad.

This not the first time of course we hear of such successful operations but the new observation this time is that some of the confiscated weapons and ammunition are not from the ususal origins you can see in Iraq (automatic rifles other than the Ak47, bazookas other than the RPG7 and other devices) and these weapons don’t belong to the stuff left behind by the old army after the 9th of April 2003.

This finding leads to the conclusion that these weapons were smuggled from outside Iraq; an operation that definitely cost a lot of money as the prices of weapons outside Iraq are much higher than they used to be in Iraq, and this leads us to two further conclusions:

- There are some groups (or countries) with high financial capabilities involved in the smuggling of weapons. This isn’t new information of course but today’s pictures have added to the evidence we have.
- Acquiring weapons and ammunition from the ‘local market’ has become a difficult process for the following reasons:
1-Due to the rising prices because the 'local market' is running out of such stuff which were either used, destroyed or  confiscated.
2-The continuous efforts of the Iraqi security forces and multinational forces in chasing and busting weapons dealers are making it more dangerous and difficult to purchase weapons locally and makes it easier to smuggle weapons from outside in case of Najaf for example which has common borders wit Saudi Arabia.

This is a good sign indeed because when getting weapons becomes more difficult and a lot more expensive than before we should expect a decline in the frequency of terrorist attacks in Iraq.