The World - News from May 11, 1988

The United States is trying to determine how several of its Stinger anti-aircraft missiles wound up in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a top U.S. official said. Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy told a congressional hearing that the shoulder-fired rockets may have been passed to Qatar by Iran, which in turn obtained them from the U.S.-supplied Afghan rebels. He said the United States could not control “black market leakages” of weapons around the world, despite a provision in its Stinger contracts with other governments that forbids transfer of the missiles to a third party. Qatar has yet to agree to a U.S. request to see the “handful” of missiles.