Defense, Interior Ministers Comment on Discovered Anti-Aircraft Missile System

Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili alleged that an armed man-portable anti-aircraft missile system “IGLA” which, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry was found in Shida Kartli region on February 3, was meant to down President Saakashvili’s helicopter.

“We do not have this kind of weapon in our armament. It is a Russian-made, and naturally is brought here from Russia through the help of Ossetians, or any other persons, who of course had no good intentions. This weapon is used to down air carriers and it is very simple to guess which one was a target – President’s helicopter, as well as few others, are flying on this route,” Okruashvili told Rustavi 2 television on February 3.

He was speaking from Munich, where Okruashvili together with President Saakashvili, participates in a high-profile security conference.

But Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said that it is difficult to say exactly what was a target of “alleged terrorist.”

“This missile could have been used against any air carrier, but I can not specify a concrete target flight, because we do not know when exactly the launcher was loaded,” Merabishvili said in an interview with Rustavi 2 on February 3.

“We know that several paramilitary groups in the Tskhinvali region [South Ossetia] possess this kind of weapon… But it is difficult to say exactly whose this missile was,” he added.

“It seems that because of some reason, which could have been a bad weather with poor visibility, alleged terrorist failed to use this anti-aircraft missile and threw it away in the river,” Merabishvili said.

He said that the Georgian experts will soon identify the identification number of this weapon. “This kind of weapon is very strictly controlled throughout the world. So I do not think it will be a difficult for us to find out the origins of this weapon,” Merabishvili said.

“Starting from Monday I will meet with representatives of the Russian, U.S. French, German, Italian, Chinese special services and hand them over information available for us… If Russia refuses to cooperate, it would mean that Russia either fails to control its armament, or hands them over to the extremist groups,” the Georgian Interior Minister stated.