Weapons found by the rebels in the southern town of Sabha after entering in September (Jazeera - Archive)
A senior leader of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said the group had obtained weapons from Libya, and called on the Islamists in this country not to surrender their weapons.
Said Mokhtar Belmokhtar - defined as the commander of the so-called "Emirate of the Desert" at the base of the Islamic Maghreb - told "Aahanaa" Mauritanian private group that benefited from the situation in Libya and got weapons, but its members were not on the ground.
Belmokhtar did not specify the nature of the weapons obtained by the organization or how he got it.
He called on the Islamists in Libya not to hand over their weapons to the transitional authorities.
The Libyan Islamic leadership this week that the fighters would retain their weapons, despite the end of the fighting, to prevent any forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi reassemble itself.
This is the first time acknowledges the leadership of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb group obtaining weapons from Libya.
Algeria has repeatedly warned that the advanced weapons moved from Libya to northern Mali.
Western governments fear that the African-up weapons - including surface / atmosphere - to those described as radical Islamic groups and other groups in the region.
And attacked the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb government forces in Mauritania, Mali and Niger in recent years, benefited to finance itself from the millions of dollars in ransom paid to free kidnapped Westerners.
Source: Reuters