SCOTTISH peace campaigners will try to “shut down” the Raytheon factory in Glenrothes today, in protest at the firm’s links to the war in Yemen.
The firm - which has benefited from huge sums of Scottish government cash - is involved in making missiles linked to civilian deaths.
Human Rights Watch say the Paveway IV missiles - used by the Saudi forces throughout the bombing of Yemen - are made in Raytheon’s Scottish plant.
With 2015 sales worth $28 billion, the global firm is among the biggest arms companies in the world.
Around 700 people are employed at the Fife factory.
Scottish ministers have handed the firm £185,625 of public cash since 2014, which they insist is to help the company “diversify” away from the arms trade.
But in 2015, Raytheon announced it would move all UK arms production to Glenrothes.
Protester Sean Clerkin said campaigners would blockade the “Raytheon bomb factory” to “demand they stop selling arms Saudi Arabia who killing innocent people in Yemen.”
He also called for the company to give back money received from the Scottish Government.
“We will shut the factory down” he said. “There's no doubt about that.”
Almost 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi intervention in March 2015, according to the World Health Organisation, but human rights groups believe the toll may be five times higher.
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