LONDON:Iran has covertly supplied Russia with millions of bullets and hundreds of thousands of shells to fuel its war in Ukraine, Sky News reported on Wednesday.
A security source told the channel that two Russian-flagged vessels in January traveled across the Caspian Sea from Iran to Russia carrying about 100 million bullets and 300,000 artillery shells, as well as rockets, mortar ammunition, kevlar vests and helmets.
The Russian side paid for the ammunition with cash, the source said, adding: “Russia continues to use Iran as a ‘rear base’.”
It follows news that last year, Tehran supplied Moscow with thousands of armed drones, which have been used in Ukraine.
The owner of the two vessels — named the Musa Jalil and Begey, according to the Sky News source — was contacted for comment by the channel but did not respond.
The two ships are believed to have carried about 200 containers of ammunition, the source said, adding that they were “confident” in their estimation of the quantity of arms.
“Iran sent two cargo ships to the combat zone in Ukraine, carrying approximately 200 new shipping containers that contained ammunition for the Russian fighting in Ukraine,” the source said.
“Russia pays for the ammunition in cash and by doing so, bypasses the Western sanctions on it, ignoring the sanctions on Iran.”
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko told Sky News that Iran is “on the wrong side of history” for supplying Russia with the weaponry.
He accused Moscow of turning to a “coalition of weak nations,” including Iran and North Korea, to overcome the difficulties it is facing in its conflict with Kyiv, including major shortages of ammunition.
“We still have to actively pursue the Iranians and the rest of these regimes to stop the supply to Russians to fuel this war in Ukraine,” Prystaiko said.
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Iran sends Russia millions of bullets to fuel Ukraine war, source tells Sky News
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Iran sends Russia millions of bullets to fuel Ukraine war, source tells Sky News
- Channel tracks 2 Russian vessels crossing Caspian Sea carrying 200 containers of arms
- Tehran ‘on the wrong side of history’ for supplying weaponry: Ukrainian envoy to UK
Libya’s security authorities free more than 200 migrants from ‘secret prison’, two security sources say
BENGHAZI: Libya’s security authorities have freed more than 200 migrants from what they described as a secret prison in the town of Kufra in the southeast of the country after they were held captive in inhuman conditions, two security sources from the city told Reuters on Sunday.
The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the security authorities had found an underground prison, nearly three meters deep, which the sources said was run by a Libyan human trafficker.
One of the sources said this person had not yet been detained.
“Some of the freed migrants were held captive up to two years in the underground cells,” this source said.
The other source said what the operation had found was “one of the most serious crimes against humanity that has been uncovered in the region.”
“The operation resulted in a raid on a secret prison within the city, where several inhumane underground detention cells were uncovered,” one of the sources added.
The freed migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from Somalia and Eritrea, including women and children, the sources said. Kufra lies in eastern Libya, about 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the capital Tripoli.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
The oil-based Libyan economy is also a draw for impoverished migrants seeking work, but security throughout the sprawling country is poor, leaving migrants vulnerable to abuses.
At least 21 bodies of migrants were found in a mass grave in eastern Libya last week, with up to 10 survivors in the group bearing signs of having been tortured before they were freed from captivity, two security sources told Reuters.
Libya’s attorney general said in a statement on Friday the authorities in the east of the country had referred a defendant to the court for trial in connection with the mass grave on charges of “committing serious violations against migrants.”
In February last year, 39 bodies of migrants were recovered from about 55 mass graves in Kufra. The town houses tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the conflict that erupted in Sudan in 2023.
The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the security authorities had found an underground prison, nearly three meters deep, which the sources said was run by a Libyan human trafficker.
One of the sources said this person had not yet been detained.
“Some of the freed migrants were held captive up to two years in the underground cells,” this source said.
The other source said what the operation had found was “one of the most serious crimes against humanity that has been uncovered in the region.”
“The operation resulted in a raid on a secret prison within the city, where several inhumane underground detention cells were uncovered,” one of the sources added.
The freed migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from Somalia and Eritrea, including women and children, the sources said. Kufra lies in eastern Libya, about 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the capital Tripoli.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
The oil-based Libyan economy is also a draw for impoverished migrants seeking work, but security throughout the sprawling country is poor, leaving migrants vulnerable to abuses.
At least 21 bodies of migrants were found in a mass grave in eastern Libya last week, with up to 10 survivors in the group bearing signs of having been tortured before they were freed from captivity, two security sources told Reuters.
Libya’s attorney general said in a statement on Friday the authorities in the east of the country had referred a defendant to the court for trial in connection with the mass grave on charges of “committing serious violations against migrants.”
In February last year, 39 bodies of migrants were recovered from about 55 mass graves in Kufra. The town houses tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the conflict that erupted in Sudan in 2023.
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