Ostrava, North Moravia, July 22 (CTK) – The Czech Republic will give Iraq the rest of the ammunition that it donated to Baghdad for fighting Islamic State in 2014, Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek has written on Twitter, referring to the cabinet’s decision at its meeting in Ostrava yesterday.
The ammunition worth 16 million crowns and weighing 260 tonnes will be transferred to Iraq by the U.S. military, Zaoralek said.
Prague sent over eight million cartridges for the 7.62mm machine guns and over 5000 cartridges for the RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launcher to Iraq via the Kurdish Regional Council last year.
The upcoming shipment will include more than 10 million 7.62mm cartridges for the Kalashnikov automatic rifles and 5000 hand grenades.
“The USA has asked the Czech Republic, via its embassy in Prague, to provide the ammunition and it declared its readiness to ensure its transfer to Iraq,” the Czech Defence Ministry has said.
“The donation of military materiel to the U.S. government with the aim to support the Iraqi armed and security forces in fighting IS militants would be Prague’s significant contribution to the anti-terror campaign, the support for Iraq and the improvement of the critical humanitarian situation of refugees in the afflicted regions,” the ministry said.
The previous shipment of ammunition, which the government approved in August 2014, was flown to the Kurds partly by a Canadian and partly a U.S. planes later last year.
($1=24.908 crowns)
