The spoils of war: a Scud missile aimed at Tripoli

When Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s soldiers fled a field outside Tripoli where they were camped, they left behind their army fatigues, a can of Brut deodorant – and a Scud tactical missile.

Days later, the Soviet-made rocket, loaded on its launcher and pointing towards the Libyan capital, is still sitting under the eucalyptus trees where they left it. The rebel forces who overthrew Gaddafi two weeks ago have set up no guard to prevent anyone taking it away or looting it for parts.

Western powers and Libya’s neighbours fear that the power vacuum could allow huge quantities of unsecured weapons left over from the civil war to end up in the hands of Islamist militants, in particular the North African branch of al-Qaeda. Officials with Libya’s interim government, the National Transitional Council, say they are trying to secure these weapons. But there was little evidence of that at the Scud site, in farmland about 15 miles south-east of Tripoli.

Abdelhamid Omar Derbek, a colonel at the local anti-Gaddafi military headquarters, said he and his men visited the site several times a day.

“I patrol here … and there is another shift that does it as well,” said Col Derbek, a Kalashnikov rifle slung over his shoulder. But for all his assertions of supervision, Col Derbek is based about ten miles away. He drove with a team of journalists from his camp to the site yesterday but there was no-one stationed there to guard it.

A group of curious local people were looking around.

“I heard about it last night and I wanted to come and take a picture,” said one of the visitors, who said he worked for an oil company.

A Scud, a 36ft rocket with a range of up to 200 miles depending on the variant, could be a valuable resource for any insurgent. The warhead contains up to a tonne of high explosive, which could be used to make improvised bombs.

It is unlikely the missile could be stolen and fired. There was no sign at the site of the liquid fuel that propels the missile. This is stored separately because it is corrosive, and it has to be loaded into the missile before firing.

The Scud site is by a highway leading east out of Tripoli and near a depot operated by US oil services firm Schlumberger. It provided a glimpse of how Gaddafi’s forces had planned to use their military hardware for a last-ditch fight and then, when defeat became inevitable, abandoned their posts.

In total there were four mobile missile launchers parked within a radius of about 500 metres at the site.

All the launchers had been covered to mask them from Nato warplanes.

Only one of the launchers had a missile mounted on it. It was not clear what had happened to the other rockets.