May 12, 2002	Sunday	Safar 28, 1423

WASHINGTON, May 11: Saudi security forces found an empty launcher for a shoulder-fired antiaircraft missile outside a desert air base used by US air forces in Saudi Arabia, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday.

“It is hard to tell whether it was fired there or someplace else,” said Marine Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan. “There were no footprints or tire tracks.”

Lapan said the launcher was for a Russian-made SA-7 shoulder-fired missile.

Saudi security forces found the empty missile tube near Prince Sultan Air Base, a hub for US air force operations in the Gulf, located in the desert about 100 kilometres south of Riyadh, he said.

There have been no reports of a missile fired at any US aircraft at the base, a heavily guarded facility in the desert south of Riyadh, he said.

“It’s sort of a mystery what it was doing there,” he said.—AFP