Report: Iraq sends back KRG-bound coalition planes to Turkey, Kuwait

ANKARA

Iraqi Defense Ministry has sent back two aircrafts carrying weapons to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq to Turkey and Kuwait after detaining them for a few days, the Doğan News Agency (DHA) reported.

“Upon an order by the Iraqi Armed Forces Command, the two planes which were carrying weapons to Kurdistan have been deported and sent back with their entire cargo to their bases in Kuwait and Turkey after being withheld at Baghdad International Airport for a few days,” DHA quoted a written statement released by the Iraqi Defense Ministry on Nov. 9.

As of Nov. 2, an English-language Iranian news agency, the Fars News Agency (FNA), reported that the Iraqi government seized two planes of the member states of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that were carrying weapons to KRG without prior coordination or information-sharing with Baghdad.

“The inspection committee in Baghdad International Airport has found a huge number of rifles equipped with silencers, as well as light and mid-sized weapons,” the agency quoted the head of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Commission, Hakem al-Zameli, as saying at the time.

Zameli told the agency that a Swedish and a Canadian airplane were going to fly to the same region but were seized after arms cargo was discovered.

Turkish officials have not yet been available for comment on the news reports.