SADAH, 19 October 2003 — In a grimy arms market in this Yemeni border town, a salesman with a dagger tucked in his belt surveys firearms, grenades and launchers littering his shop. For $2,500, an 85mm surface-to-surface missile can be had that would destroy a car or blow through a building, arms dealers say.
With a view to keeping illegal weapons out of terrorist hands, Yemen and Saudi Arabia have joined forces to stem the flow of weapons and explosives across their porous desert border. And US military experts are training Yemen’s coast guard and spending $55 million to plug up arms-running routes along the Red Sea coast.
The crackdown is starting to be felt. Although trade at Yemen’s several arms markets remains brisk, on a recent visit, missiles that can down a plane were no longer on display. Security forces had collected them, said a local official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
However, dealers said anti-aircraft missiles could still be had for the right price.
“We have everything,” the border-town arms shopkeeper said, mumbling through a mouthful of khat, a mild stimulant.
Any missiles?
“Everything is available, just show me the dough,” added Yehia, who was in his 30s and eager for a sale, but reluctant to give his full name.
Yemen, an impoverished country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has long been awash in small arms, an estimated 60 million, or three for each of its 20 million people, authorities say.
After decades of going unchecked, the easy proliferation of arms and explosives in Yemen received world attention when 17 American sailors were killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden.
More recently, Saudi authorities said weapons and explosives smuggled across the border from Yemen were used in the May 12 suicide bombings of housing compounds in Riyadh that killed 35 people, including nine attackers.
Since the Riyadh bombings Saudi border patrols have seized more than 90,000 ammunition rounds, dozens of grenades, more than 2,000 sticks of dynamite, hundreds of bazookas, and more than 1,200 other weapons.
The crackdown is also focusing on smuggling on Yemen’s 125-mile Red Sea coast, a gateway for contraband alcohol, drugs and weapons.
Small ships unload at any of dozens of flyspeck islands off shore, then parcel the goods onto yet smaller boats that slip through undetected to anywhere on the mainland, dealers say.
In an effort to choke off those routes, US military experts have been training Yemeni coast guard forces to increase surveillance, and the United States is paying the $55 million cost of high-tech Australian speedboats to be delivered next month.
