Gunpowder, Solid Rocket Fuel Go Missing in Western Georgia

News broke on November 8 that 500 kg of gunpowder and 600 kg of solid rocket fuel is missing from a Defense Ministry?s military storehouse at the Kopitnari airport in the western Georgian town of Kutaisi.

Officials say that it is unknown yet when the materials were lost or how such a large amount of gunpowder and solid rocket fuel could go missing.

This report comes just ten days after the news broke about the disappearance of ammunition from a military depot in the south-western Georgian district of Akhaltsikhe.

In September, law enforcers arrested two officials from the Georgian Defense Ministry who had alleged links to the disappearance of eight Strela-2 man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems. The disappearance is suspected to have occurred sometime between 1996 and 1999.

In late August one Defense Ministry and two Interior Ministry officials were arrested, both of whom were accused of appropriation of arms and ammunition from the Osiauri military unit in central Georgia.