Servicemen steal and sell nearly $2 million in guns

Investigators have tracked down around $1.8 million in missing US military weaponry, and no, the loot wasn’t just left behind in barracks and bunkers. Instead it went directly to street gangs. The results of a nearly two-year-old probe established to investigate missing military gear reveals that nearly $2 million worth of assault rifles, night-vision goggles and other guns and gadgets were pilfered by servicemen from within the Armed Forces and then sold illegally both through local outlets to gangs and on the Internet to residents of foreign countries. So far more than 60 people have been implicated in the undercover sting, which began nearly two years ago by officers with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Along the way, federal agencies as diverse as the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and even the FBI have been brought into the mix. The results of the investigation were unearthed on Tuesday this week by reporters at the Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Local agencies including the N.C. State Bureau of Investigations, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Police Department have been named in the probe as well. “The case is still active and ongoing in partnership with several other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies,” Ed Buice, a public affairs officer for NCIS in Quantico, Va., explains to the paper. “I can’t go into much detail.” And although information is sparse for now, those willing to speak say that it wasn’t just a vast, international conspiracy at play. For some, the whole exchange might have just been fun and games. “We’re talking about sophisticated, hi-tech flashlights that cost the government up to $800 per unit. The temptation and ease with which to steal and sell them, for some, is irresistible,” a government official familiar with the operations adds to the Daily News. Adding to the report, the NCIS’ Buice says that the results of the probe suggest that the under-the-radar weapons trade was becoming “a growing problem.” That problem, reveals the investigation, spread as far east as China. At other times, military personal were taking to eBay, Craiglist and yard sales to unload gear that either wasn’t sold overseas or pawned off on local gangs.

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Two British servicemen shot dead by Afghan police they were training

The killing in Helmand province is the latest in a growing spree of Afghan personnel killing their Nato allies. The soldier from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and one airman from the Royal Air Force were shot dead on Saturday in Lashkar Gah district. One of the policemen was shot dead in an ensuing gunfight and the other fled and has yet to be caught. Fareed Ahmad, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial police, said the policemen opened fire at 3pm at a joint Afghan-coalition compound. He said a third Afghan policemen fired at the attackers, killing one and wounding the other, who escaped.

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Nine killed in Syria suicide blasts

In fresh attacks on symbols of state power, twin suicide bombs exploded near a government security compound in northern Syria and rockets struck the central bank in Damascus, killing nine people and wounding 100. The regime and the opposition traded blame, accusing each other of dooming a United Nations plan to calm violence that has largely failed so far. The head of the UN observer mission acknowledged that his force cannot solve the country's crisis alone and urged both sides to stop fighting. Monday's attacks were the latest in a series of suicide bombings that started in December and have mostly targeted Syrian military and intelligence positions. The regime routinely blames the opposition, which denies having a role or the capability to carry out such attacks. After other similar bombings, US officials suggested al-Qaida militants may be joining the fray, and an al-Qaida-inspired Islamist group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Syria. The powerful blasts, which blew two craters in the ground and ripped the facade off a multistorey building, came a day after Major General Robert Mood, the head of the observer mission, took up his post in Damascus. "Ten, 30, 300 or 1,000 observers will not solve all problems," he told reporters. "So everyone has to help us achieve this mission." More than 9,000 people have been killed in the 13-month crisis, according to the UN. An April 12 ceasefire agreement has helped reduce violence, but fighting persists, and UN officials have singled out the Syrian regime as the main aggressor. An advance team of 16 UN observers is on the ground to try to salvage the truce, which is part of a broader plan by special envoy Kofi Annan to launch talks between President Bashar Assad and his opponents. By mid-May, the team is to grow to 100, but UN officials have not said when a full 300-member contingent is to be deployed. Monday's bombs went off in the northern city of Idlib, an opposition stronghold that government troops recaptured in a military offensive earlier this year.

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