Gun used on al-Hilli is Serbian Mafia's signature weapon

Perpetrators could have staged a road accident – instead it seems they were trying to send a message

Crispin Black

IT LOOKS like a contract killing. The Skorpion machine pistol gives the game away – it is the signature weapon of the disparate and aggressive Balkan nationalist/criminal fraternity sometimes referred to as the Serbian Mafia, but which includes nationals of all the former states of Yugoslavia.

Skorpions, originally designed and manufactured by the Czechs in the 1960s, were made later under licence in Yugoslavia. You can tell the Yugoslav version from its cheap plastic hand-grips. Issued to some Yugoslav soldiers, particularly special forces, it later became the favoured weapon of Serbian ethnic cleansers and thugs including the notorious Arkan. Most versions can be set to fire in three different modes by clicking a switch at the side – single rounds, short bursts and fully automatic. The problem with weapons of this type is that although they have a very high rate of fire (850 rounds a minute) their magazine capacity is limited to 20 rounds.

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is a former Welsh Guards lieutenant colonel and intelligence analyst for the British government's Joint Intelligence Committee. His book, 7-7: What Went Wrong, was one of the first to be published after the London bombings in July 2005.