http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003470337_iraqarms10.htmlSunday, December 10, 2006 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Iraq army weapons wind up on black market
By C.J. Chivers
The New York Times
Sunday, December 10, 2006 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — The Kurdish security contractor placed the black plastic box on the table. Inside was a new Glock 19, one of the 9 mm pistols that the United States issued by the tens of thousands to the Iraqi army and police.
This pistol was no longer in the custody of the Iraqi army or police. It had been stolen or sold, and it found its way to an open-air grocery stand that does a lively black-market business in police and infantry arms. The contractor bought it there.
He displayed other purchases, including a short-barreled Kalashnikov assault rifle with a collapsible stock that makes it easy to conceal under a coat or fire from a car. "I bought this for $450 last year," he said of the rifle. "Now it costs $650. The prices keep going up."
Prices soaring
Weapon prices are soaring along with an expanding sectarian war, as more buyers push prices to levels several times higher than those that existed at the time of the American-led invasion nearly four years ago. Rising prices, in turn, have encouraged an insidious form of Iraqi corruption — the migration of army and police weapons from Iraqi state armories to black-market sales.
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