The Iranian-Hezbollah MANPADS ThreatBy Sean Osborne, Associate Director, Military Affairs10 February 2007: In the past month, a rash of U.S. military and contractor helicopters have been shot out of the sky during combat operations in Iraq. The most recent, and fifth chopper to be shot down, was the USMC CH-46E Sea Knight in the vicinity of al-Karma, Al Anbar province. The weapon used was MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense System).
Based upon my research, it is a virtual certainty that the MANPADS used to bring down these US helicopters in recent days are Iranian-supplied. The weapons Iran has provided are either Chinese-made QW-1 or Iran's own copy-cat Mithaq-1, both of which are comparable to the US-made Stinger MANPADS. It is also probable that Iran has supplied the terrorists with Russian made MANPADS such as the SA-7,Grail, SA-14 Gremlin and SA-16 Gimlet.
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Iran sends shoulder-borne QW-1 anti-air missiles to Iraqi Sunni insurgents and Hizballah to shoot down US and Israeli helicopters