Number of missing Libyan missiles unknown

TRIPOLI, Libya, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Weapons inspectors said they can't find what may be thousands of portable anti-aircraft missiles acquired by ex-Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Inspectors have accounted for about 5,000 of the shoulder-fired missiles and their components, but indicated Gadhafi stockpiled about 20,000 of them during his four decades in power, USA Today reported Tuesday.

It's unknown how many missiles were in the open when Tripoli fell to anti-Gadhafi rebels last year and Gadhafi was shot and killed. Inspectors and others say many of the weapons probably were destroyed during NATO airstrikes and others fell into the the hands of militias who fought against the Gadhafi regime.

"The frank answer is we don't know and probably never will," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro said.

The variables makes it difficult to estimate how many of the man-portable air defense systems, as they're known, are in circulation, one observer said.

"I think it's potentially thousands," Rachel Stohl, an analyst at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank, told USA Today. "Nobody knows."