Terror threat

Report: Saudi, UAE weapons end up with armed groups

An investigative report by a Bulgarian journalist says Saudi Arabia and the UAE have supplied Eastern-European-made weapons to armed groups in Syria and Iraq using different intermediaries and diplomatic cover to mask their points of origin and final destinations.

The report, authored by Dilyana Gaytandzhiev, claims Saudi Arabia, UAE, the US military and several countries have used Azerbaijani state-owned airlines Silk Way Airlines to transport large quantities of weapons that ended up in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, Kurdish fighters in the Middle East and armed groups in Africa.

"At least 350 diplomatic Silk Way Airlines flights transported weapons for war conflicts across the world over the last 3 years," says the report, published in Trud, Bulgaria's largest circulated newspaper.