The World - News from April 1, 1988

The State Department, confirming that the strategic Persian Gulf sheikdom of Qatar has acquired a cache of U.S. Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, says it is pursuing the issue with Qatari diplomats but declined to say whether it has asked for its missiles back. Often called “the perfect terrorist weapon,” the Stingers--believed to number 13--”were not procured from the United States and must have been acquired illegally,” department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said. Other U.S. officials believe the missiles are part of a CIA shipment of 20 Stingers that Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized in June, 1987, in a raid on a convoy supplying U.S.-backed Afghan rebels.