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Under a decision of the government, Estonia last week sent weapons and ammunition to the armed forces of Iraq to support the country's fight against the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).
Estonia sends weapons, ammunition to Iraq's armed forces
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The government decided to donate to Iraq Soviet-era weapons and ammunition kept in the warehouses of the defense forces, which do not meet NATO standards and will not be used by the defense forces of Estonia, spokespeople for the Defense Ministry told BNS. The decision was made in response to a request from the Iraqi side,
The batch sent to Iraq consists of 12 units of Soviet-made 120-millimeter mortars, 140 RPD light machine-guns, 66 Chinese-made AK-56 automatic rifles, 44 Romanian-made AKMS automatic rifles and 230 TT pistols with 21,000 rounds of ammunition.
The delivery of the donated weapons and ammunition to Iraq is organized by the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in collaboration with other allies.
The Estonian decision to support the Iraqi armed forces fighting against IS is based on guidelines adopted by the EU External Affairs Council on Aug. 15, 2014 which supports the readiness of member states to provide weapons aid to Iraq in addition to humanitarian aid to help stabilize the security situation in Iraq and boost the capability of government forces to halt the onslaught of IS.
Last year, Estonia donated more than a million rounds of ammunition to Iraq. Previously, in 2005, Estonia donated to Iraq 2,400 AK-56 automatic rifles with 2.4 million rounds of ammunition and 11 computers complete with computer class furniture.