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Arms Sales in Iraqi Bazaars: German Weapons ‘May Fall Into Daesh Hands'

© AP Photo / Militant website via AP, FileIn this undated file photo released by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, while riding in Raqqa city in Syria
In this undated file photo released by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, while riding in Raqqa city in Syria - Sputnik International
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People are free to buy an assault rifle or a pistol in Iraqi markets. The weapons are most likely being sold by Kurdish soldiers who have not received their salaries for months, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported.

The free sale of weapons with the Bundeswehr label is reported to have occurred in markets in the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, German media reported.

The vendors are presumably fighters of the Kurdish military formation Peshmerga, who had not been paid for several months and had to sell arms to make ends meet.

"In the markets you can buy G3-type assault rifles and Walther P1-class guns," the newspaper quoted a correspondent of German TV Channel NDR as saying. The prices range from 1,450 to 1,800 dollars for a rifle, and 1,200 dollars for a gun, the media source reported.

German soldier holds a Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle at a military training ground near Weisskeissel,  Germany - Sputnik International
German Arms Exports to Arab States Rise by 50%
The German Ministry of Defense confirmed that Germany had sent 20,000 assault rifles and 8,000 pistols to the soldiers of Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 as a part of the anti-Daesh campaign. The next delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.

The German opposition criticized the arms supplies saying that they may seriously worsen the situation in the region as nobody can guarantee full control of the area. For instance, representative of the German Left party Alexander Neu stressed that Daesh or other Islamist groups might ultimately come into possession of German weapons.

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