U.S. plans to buy new guns for Iraqi force

Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service

In Iraq, a nation awash with hundreds of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, the U.S.-led occupation authority is planning to buy and import 34,000 more of the ubiquitous weapons to equip a new Iraqi army.

The plan has baffled some observers, not only because U.S. forces in Iraq have already seized and stockpiled thousands of the rifles since April, but because defence analysts have strongly recommended that the new Iraqi army be equipped with more modern, U.S.-made weap-ons systems. --

"That's surprising," said Army Capt. Jeff Fitzgibbons, a task force spok-esman in Baghdad. "It would seem to me odd that we're out there looking to buy more weapons for a place where we've already captured and set aside so many of them. It would raise a red flag for me, that's for sure." --

Individual AK-47s are advertised on the Internet for several hundred dollars apiece. Although it was unclear what the per-rifle cost would be under such a large purchase, the total order would presumably exceed $1 million. ---