Al-Qaida gets hands on Libyan weapons

BRUSSELS, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The North African branch of al-Qaida managed to get a hold of surface-to-air missiles during the Libyan war, a European terrorism official said.

Gilles de Kerchove, the top counter-terrorism official with the European Union, said from Brussels that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb may have acquired a significant stockpile of weapons during the Libyan war.

AQIM, he was quoted by London's Daily Telegraph newspaper as saying, had "gained access to weapons, either small arms or machine-guns, or certain surface-to-air missiles which are extremely dangerous because they pose a risk to flights over the territory."

AQIM, meanwhile, took responsibility for August attacks on the Cherchell Military Academy in Algeria. The attack left 16 students and two civilians dead.

AQIM in a statement said the bombing was "a gift for Eid," the three-day celebration marking the end of Ramadan.

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade, in a May letter to Mahmoud Jibril, chairman of the rebel-backed Transitional National Council, said there were a series of issues on the minds of some lawmakers on Capitol Hill regarding the future of Libya.

The TNC is now widely recognized as the sole governmental authority in Libya after the regime of Moammar Gadhafi collapsed during August fighting.

In his letter, Sherman called on Jibril to bar Libyan insurgents or members of al-Qaida from serving in the TNC.