Russian Publication: The United States Supplies Syrian Rebels with Bulgarian Weapons

The war in Syria is never-ending. The U.S. continues to supply Syrian rebels with weapons from Eastern Europe. This is how the analysis of the Eurasia Daily edition begins, which claims that it has been tracking the scale of the supplies. According to data provided by the medium, whose publication includes a number of attachments, in February alone, the U.S. counterparts of the Pentagon have received 23 tons of ammunition for the Syrian rebels just from Bulgaria. According to the Russian publication, the Pentagon does not reveal the exact types of ammunition delivered to Syria.

23 Tons of Death

According to data from Panjiva, the international portal for customs declarations, Bulgarian enterprises made two deliveries of ammunition in the United States in February. On Feb. 16, the Bulgarian ammunition manufacturer Dunarit supplied the U.S. subdivision of the British corporation Chemring Military Products with 5.7 tons of rockets and mortar bombs. After leaving Bulgaria, the freight was sent to the German port of Bremerhaven and from there the container vessel Philadelphia Express shipped it to the U.S. port of Charleston. From the U.S., the weapons are supplied mainly to Jordan, where one of the headquarters for weapons distribution among the loyal U.S. allies in Syria is located.

Along the same route from Bremerhaven to Charleston on Feb. 25, the British corporation received 17.3 tons of weapons from the largest arms manufacturer in Bulgaria – Vazov Machine Factories. The main types of ammunition delivered are the Grad rockets and the rocket-propelled grenade launchers RPG-7. All these types of ammunitions are actively used by the Syrian rebels. EA Daily reports that the latter are shelling the Russian air base in Khmeimim with the Grad rockets.

The same Chemring Military Products was named last September as one of the four companies that would contract to supply weapons to the Pentagon and which are not used by NATO or the United States’ allies in the fight with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Picatinny Arsenal, a supply structure for the U.S. Army, announced five contracts worth a total of up to $500 million. The purchases are being made in accordance with the program to support the United States’ allies with non-standard weapons, within which framework weapons and ammunition are supplied in Syria.

According to data from the system’s website tracking the expenses incurred by U.S. federal authorities, the subdivision of the U.S. Army’s Joint Munitions Command ordered from Chemring Military Products only one of the contracts, worth $73,000, to deliver ammunition and mortar systems from Bulgaria for use outside of the United States until May 8 this year.

Set Great Store by the Soviets: In 2019, the Militants Would Receive 25,000 Kalashnikov Rifles

10 tons of the February ammunition deliveries were the Grad rocket launchers. This type of ammunition is not found among the financing documents for the Syrian training and equipping program to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, which were published on Feb. 18. They say that the Pentagon, just as in the past, would count on supplying the rebels with cheap and easy-to-use, but reliable, Soviet model weapons. It is planned that Syria would receive $500 million this year and $300 million over the next. The main expenditures are for purchasing non-standard weapons and ammunition. For example, the Pentagon is proposing that in 2019, 25,000 AK-47s, 1,500 modern Kalashnikov machine guns, 500 large-caliber machine guns and 400 hand-held anti-tank missile RPG-7s are to be purchased for the Syrian opposition. Furthermore, the Pentagon intends to provide weapons for 60,000-65,000 militants from the Syrian opposition.

According to EA Daily, the militants are supplied with Eastern European weapons from Saudi Arabia and the U.S. And with each year, the supplies are only increasing. For example, in 2016, Bulgaria alone increased by three times the sale of the Soviet model weapons for the two countries. The companies and government authorities of the United States and Saudi Arabia have acquired Bulgarian weapons and ammunitions for $294 million and $120.3 million respectively, which is one-third of all weapons exported from Bulgaria. Compared to 2015, the total weapon sales to the two countries have increased almost threefold – by $148.8 million to $413.6 million.

New Prosperity for Bulgarian Weapon Manufacturers. Ukraine Is ‘Part of the Conversation’

Regardless of Donald Trump’s statements that he wants to end the war in Syria, this is ongoing and the U.S. adds fuel to the fire, comments the Russian publication. Moreover, last year – when Trump had just taken office – was not an exception, adds the Russian medium. We can judge this by Vazov Machine Factories production and financial results, which were published by the Bulgarian daily newspaper Trud, concludes EA Daily. For the first nine months of 2017, the biggest weapons manufacturer in Bulgaria increased its production by one-third, compared with 2016: up to $250 million, and has reported a profit of $95 million. In addition, 900 new employees were hired. The data was published in November, and Trud reports that by the end of the year Vazov Machine Factories was supposed to complete contracts for another $81 million.

Obviously, the sales of other Bulgarian manufacturers have also increased, says EA Daily. There are continuous purchases from the arms supplier Arsenal. And so, based on data from the customs declarations website Importgenius, in June 2017 a subsidiary company named Spring Factory Co. delivered 53,000 AK-47 automatic rifle rounds to the purchaser, UDC USA (registered as Ukrainian Defense Consulting Ltd.).

And the famously scandalous Purple Shovel* was supposed to deliver the RPG-7 portable rocket grenade launchers for $4.2 million to the Special Operations Command of the U.S. Defense Department by Sept. 22.

According to EA Daily, in the last year Ukraine began active participation in the production of Bulgarian weapons. Ukrainian enterprises have started to deliver igniters with cap and detonator capsules for the production of anti-aircraft weapon shells, mortar rounds, shells for automatic cannons ZU-23 and anti-aircraft weapons launchers (“Shilka”) to the Bulgarian weapons manufacturers. According to the available customs documents, during the second half of 2017, Urinmash – the subsidiary of the state company Ukrspetsexport – has delivered to the Bulgarian producer Arcus around 8 million capsules.

Arcus became famous in December 2016 after it was leaked that it supplied Syrian rebels. Then, after the liberation of Aleppo, the government army showed the Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva** a warehouse with Bulgarian ammunition. The boxes contained Grad missiles, produced by Vazov Machine Factories. The export labels read “Arcus.”

On the website of the U.S. government’s purchasing agent, it says that in March last year, Alliance Techsystems Operations, the subcontractor of the Pentagon under the program for non-standard weapons, signed a contract with the Bulgarian company for the supply of ammunition and their components valued at $54 million.

It can be assumed that the two deliveries for 23 tons of ammunition in February for the Syrian militants were not the only ones, writes the Russian publication. In the customs declarations, it says that the Philadelphia Express vessel was responsible for their shipment. According to the data of the navigation portal Marinetraffic, on March 18 the container vessel left the German port of Bremerhaven and sailed again for the U.S. port of Charleston, where it should arrive next Monday – March 26.

*Original editor’s note: Purple Shovel’s subcontractor Francis Norwillo was killed in an incident with a grenade launcher three years ago at the Anevo training ground.

**Original editor’s note: Gaytandzhieva was working back then for the Trud newspaper, but was best known for her career in the bankrupt station TV7, under the wing of Nikolai Barekov, where she excelled with a controversial report about a serial car arsonist, who proved to be Peter Yakimov, the spokesman of the Bulgarian “Anti-mafia.” He was intentionally filmed from the back, in order not to be identified. A while after the reporting from Syria, Gaytandzhieva wrote on Facebook that she was dismissed from Trud due to an investigation by Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security about her report; this was followed by her explanations in interviews with the Russian media.