\n<\/p>\n
In the early 80s, Iraq Military Industry was quite impressive for a Middle Eastern country. With the help of Yugoslavia, the country produced several different AK-pattern rifles, light machine guns, and various sniper rifles.<\/p>\n
Iraq also produced a pistol called \u201cTariq\u201d with two versions, a 9 mm that was based on the Beretta 951 and a 7.65 mm version that was essentially a copy of the Beretta 70. My fellow TFB writer Miles made a great video about those pistols for TFB TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n Firearms manufacturing in Iraq continued all the way through the long and exhausting Iran-Iraq war, operation \u201cDesert Storm\u201d, the embargo, and the crippling sanctions. The quality was getting worse, but the factories kept on working until the 2003 invasion.<\/p>\n Gold-plated Tariq pistol author photographed in Erbil<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For a while, Iraq was solely relying on imports when it came to small arms. When I was there, I\u2019d never seen any newly manufactured guns that were made in Iraq. Exactly three years ago I even went on a research trip to see what is going on with Iraq\u2019s small arms industry.<\/p>\n You can read about this trip here on TFB (Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a>), but to save you some time, here is the summary: I\u2019ve seen tons of cool stuff, but no firearms production. But in the last three years, the world has changed.\u00a0Much that once was, is lost, for none now live who remember it.<\/p>\n And while the Tabuk rifle and Tariq pistol production facilities are in ruin, there is a new power that managed to replace Yugoslavian and Italian technology.<\/p>\n