Inside the home of crazed Belgian killer who launched grenade attack on Christmas market

[one-eyed fat man]

8. Rocket launchers

Rocket launchers in the picture appear to be a US made M72A1 LAW on the left and a Yugoslav M80 Zolya on the right. They are roughly contemporaries and were designed as handheld anti-tank rockets roughly the same role as the old bazooka or the RPG.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M72_LAW

These weapons were unique in that the launcher was also the shipping container for the rocket. A soldier opened up the tube, fired the rocket and destroyed the empty launcher. They were not intended to be reused, but once fired the empties were often used to train recruits how to use them. Some places the empties were sold as display pieces.

Without closer examination it would be difficult to say whether those in the picture are live or not. The controls on the LAW by NATO would likely have been pretty good. On the other hand, military hardware from former Warsaw Pact countries not so much. Odds are both are empty but a slim possibility exists that the M80 is live. Given Amrani's penchant for dealing in illicit goods like drugs and weapons, it would not be a big stretch that he might trade drugs for weapons from someone in the former East bloc.

As a practical matter, almost any open tube of the right diameter could be used as a rocket launcher. Hamas, the Viet Cong, and countless "Liberation Fronts" have used improvised launchers for Katyusha type 122 mm rockets. A simple set of cross sticks pointing the rocket in the desired direction and at the correct elevation is sufficient. By using a time fuse to delay the launch, counter-battery radar is rendered ineffective in that there is no one to shoot back at despite the radar letting you know where the rocket was launched.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-battery_radar