Weapons smuggling booms in southern Qurna

 

By Abid Battat

 

Azzaman, February 7, 2006

 

Smuggling of weapons is a thriving business in Qurna, 74 kilometers northwest of the southern city of Basra.

 

The contraband trade, involving a variety of weapons, is most noticeable in the district of Muzairia, on the eastern bank of the Tigris River.

 

Residents said the trade was not confined to small arms. They said smugglers openly put for sale mortars, rockets and landmines.

 

The source of the weapons is not known. The smugglers say the weapons are remnants of the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.

 

Most traders are young Iraqis. Buyers are not hard to find.

 

Residents in Qurna say they have already informed the authorities on the illegal trade but no action has been taken.

 

The smugglers are moving their business from villages and districts across the Tigris to Qurna itself, the residents added.

 

Qurna, Arabic for corner, is strategically situated as it controls the routes upstream the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and downstream the Shatt Al-Arab Waterway.

 

In the absence of police or security forces, smugglers, using canoes and diesel-powered boats, move freely along these rivers.

 

Qurna is situated exactly at the tip of the point where rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet, forming the Shatt Al-Arab.

 

Recently, new weapons were being brought to the area. Residents, who served in the former army, said they had not seen such weapons before.

 

“Some of these (smuggled) weapons were not used by the former army. They are new to us and look modern. Some of the items on show fall under the heavy weapons category,” a resident said.