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Canadian-made weapons may have fallen into the hands of the Ansarullah fighters in Yemen, highlighting Canada’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia.
The rifles were most likely seized from Saudi forces, and it appears to have happened more than once, according to Armament Research Services, an international intelligence consultancy that traces arms.
The weapons first appeared in photos and video featured on a Houthi-linked TV channel and social media, showcased as "modern weapons" captured in battle with "Saudi border guards." It seemed a coup for a group that’s been under a UN arms embargo for the past year.
Experts at ARES investigated the photos and concluded they almost certainly show an LRT-3 sniper rifle made by Winnipeg-based PGW Defence Technologies.
Several other Canadian and international experts consulted by CBC News agree.
"They’re so distinctive visually that there aren’t many rifles that look like them," ARES director Nic Jenzen-Jones said of the LRT-3, a .50 calibre sniper rifle with a potential range of nearly two kilometres.
Asked by the CBC to comment, the manufacturer declined to confirm that, saying only that all its exports follow Canadian export rules.
Another photo and a brief video also show the suspected LRT-3 next to what is believed to be a PGW Timberwolf sniper rifle, among other weapons, lying at the feet of three Houthi revolutionaries with fists in the air.
"There are a couple of paths the weapon could have followed, but for us the most likely is that it was captured, from Saudi land forces," says Jenzen-Jones.
The weapons in question were most likely exported to Saudi Arabia. One of a few indications: on a media tour last year, Saudi soldiers were photographed on Yemen’s border carrying a rifle that weapons experts believe is a PGW Timberwolf.
The apparent presence of such rifles in Yemen’s battlefields, and how they got there, raises difficult questions for the Canadian government.
For one, the weapons may be pressed into service in a war that has killed some 7,000 civilians, destroyed infrastructure, displaced 2.5 million people and left an already acutely poor nation on the verge of widespread famine.
"To have evidence of even one or two [weapons] is an indicator. It’s like an iceberg: there’s a visible part but there’s far more below the surface," said Kenneth Epps, a policy advisor at Project Ploughshares, an anti-conflict organization which tracks weapons sales and exports.
"Canadians should be worried about [it]," Epps says. "Even if it’s just one case, it suggests that there possibly could be many more."
According to a CBC News analysis, over the past decade Canada has shipped more than $28 million worth of Canadian-made guns and rifles to Saudi Arabia - this country’s second largest weapons customer after the U.S.
Company owner Ross Spagrud declined an interview, saying only, "All our exports are undertaken via the authority of export permits which are issued by the Government of Canada."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
