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Iraq Buys Used Russian Fighter Jets Amid U.S. Delivery Delay
[BUSINESSWEEK] Iraq has bought used fighter jets from Russia and Belarus to battle Islamist faceless myrmidons after long delays in the delivery of F-16 planes from the U.S. left troops without air support, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
 said.

Maliki, in an interview with BBC Arabic yesterday, blamed the U.S.'s "long, very slow way" for delaying the delivery of 36 aircraft. "We shouldn't have just bought U.S. jets, we should have bought British, French and Russian jets to provide air support. If we had air support, none of this would have happened," he said, according to excerpts e-mailed by the BBC.
The MiG-21 is perfectly capable of suppressing a defenseless population. It's also useful in going after militants as long as the militants don't have heavy anti-air guns or Stingers...
The U.S is delivering the first F-16 aircraft "as quickly as possible" and has said all along that they'll be handed over in the fall, Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon front man, told news hounds in Washington yesterday. He also said that the remaining 200 of 500 Hellfire missiles approved for delivery to Iraq will be sent in the coming weeks.
Posted by: Fred 2014-06-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=394304