Libya: Unsecured Explosive Weapons

Human Rights Watch inspected two unsecured explosive weapon facilities near Sirte, Libya on October 22, 2011. The two unguarded sites contained vast amounts of surface-to-air missiles, tank and mortar rounds, large numbers of munitions, and thousands of guided and unguided aerial weapons. For months, Human Rights watch has warned the National Transitional Council, Libya’s transitional government, about the dangers posed by these vast stockpiles of unguarded weapons, and the urgent need to secure them. Surface-to-air missiles can take down civilian aircraft, and the explosive weapons can be converted easily into the car bombs and IEDs that have killed thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan.