A host of companies around the world provided military equipment to Iraq in the run-up to war, sending it mainly through Syria, according to documents discovered in Baghdad.
The files, which include signed contracts, shipping manifests and minutes of meetings, appear to show that a Damascus company run by a relative of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was at the centre of the trade.
The documents were found in the abandoned office of al-Bashair Trading Company by a reporter for the German magazine Stern, shortly after US troops entered the capital.
Although al-Bashair was ostensibly an import-export business, it had been identified by the UN as the biggest of 13 companies used by Saddam Hussein’s regime to evade international sanctions.
Details of Iraq’s weapons purchases emerged yesterday when the Los Angeles Times published the results of a three-month investigation sparked by the discovery of the papers.
The report comes at a particularly sensitive time in relations between Iraq and Syria.
Earlier this month President George Bush approved sanctions against Syria for its alleged support of Islamist groups. Washington has also been pressing Syria to seal its border with Iraq to stop the infiltration of militants.
The LA Times said that between last year and early this year Syria became the main conduit for illicit weapons deals after a crackdown in Jordan, which had previously been Iraq’s chief source of smuggled arms.
It said the Syrian company SES International Corporation had played a pivotal role.
”Iraqi records show that SES signed more than 50 contracts to supply tens of millions of dollars’ worth of arms and equipment to Iraq’s military shortly before the US-led invasion in March,” it said.
The deals are reported to include supplying 1,000 heavy machine guns and up to 20m rounds for assault rifles.
”Syria’s government assisted SES in importing at least one shipment destined for Iraq’s military, the Iraqi documents indicate, and Western intelligence reports allege that senior Syrian officials were involved in other illicit transfers,” the paper said.
The investigation is likely to embarrass two American allies, Poland and South Korea.
Before the war a Polish company, Evax, signed four contracts with Iraq and delivered up to 380 engines for surface-to-air missiles to Baghdad through Syria, the paper said.
A South Korean company, Armitel, sent telecommunications equipment worth $8m (£4.5m) for what the documents said was air defence, the paper reported.
Among other deals identified by the investigation:
· A Russian company signed an $8.8m contract in September last year to supply mostly American-made communications and surveillance equipment to Iraq;
· A Slovenian company sent 20 tank barrels identified as ”steel tubes” to SES in February 2002, though further supplies were blocked by the Slovenian government;
· Two North Korean officials went to Damascus to discuss an Iraqi payment of $10m for ballistic missiles components;
· A US-based company, Cambridge Technology, sold four optical scanners, which can be adapted to help divert laser-guided missiles, to a student in Canada who sent them to Jordan, ”without the US company’s knowledge”.
It is unclear whether SES was acting with the knowledge or approval of the president, but analysts said it was unlikely that the deals could have gone ahead without the government’s involvement. – Guardian Unlimited Â