From: "Rich Gauszka" 



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JPKY4R41A1KIBQFIQMGCFF4AV
CBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/02/13/wiran13.xml
Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in
the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

More than 100 of the.50 calibre weapons, capable of penetrating body
armour, have been discovered by American troops during raids.

The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company,
Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.

The sale was condemned in Washington and London because officials were
worried that the weapons would be used by insurgents against British and
American troops.

Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran,
an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi
insurgent using the weapon.

Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the
œ10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total
to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

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