Libya: Weapons caches ripe for the taking

Thousands of weapons remain unguarded and freely available to anyone, despite government promises to secure Libyas abandoned ammunition sites.The abundance of arms free for the taking, in an area that has not seen combat since the summer, throws a major challenge to the countrys National Transitional Council (NTC) as it struggles to bring order after the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.At one massive bunker complex thousands of rockets, mines, tank shells and even two Italian naval torpedoes lay in neat stacks ready for transport -- with not a guard in sight.At another, larger ammo dump near Libyas second-largest city Benghazi, a single fighter stood guard over a tract of land dotted with bunkers stretching as far as the eye could see.Under growing international pressure from countries that support it, the nascent government has publicly committed itself to securing weapon depots that fuelled eight months of combat and ended in Gaddafis capture and killing last month.With at least dozens of bunkers left completely unguarded, the resolve of Libyas rulers may now come into question at the very moment the faction-plagued NTC tries to build a new system of government, largely from scratch.Built on a desolate landscape near the town of Ajdabiyah, one site visited by Reuters had been bombed by NATO warplanes while still in the hands of pro-Gaddafi forces. Some 30 bunkers remained intact and brimming with crates of armaments, their doors wide open.Most of the stocks housed in the dusty bunkers a few kilometres off the main coastal road contained munitions that require heavy weapons to be fired, although mortar rounds and land mines designed to destroy vehicles and maim people sit ready for use.Some analysts fear that remnants of Gaddafi loyalists or others unhappy with the NTC could use stray weaponry to wage guerrilla war, foiling effective government and a resumption of oil production in the OPEC-member country.The weapons could also pose a threat to Libyas neighbours -- especially given the countrys porous southern borders with hotspots like Sudan, Niger and Chad.