Report: Russia Receiving Weapons From Iraq Via Iranian Smugglers

Russia is receiving weapons from Iraq with the help of Iranian arms smuggling networks in its war against Ukraine, British daily The Guardian reported.

The article quoted Iranian-backed Iraqi militias as well as regional intelligence services.

RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), anti-tank missiles, as well as Brazilian-designed rocket launcher systems were transported to Russia from Iraq, according to the report.

In addition, an Iranian-made Bavar 373 missile system, similar to the Russian S-300, was transferred to Moscow for the war effort, with authorities in Tehran also returning an S-300.

A source from the Shia militia umbrella Hashd al-Shaabi - or Popular Mobilization - told the newspaper that it doesn't concern them where the weapons end up, but that "whatever is anti-US makes us happy."

Iraq has hosted US and Western troops since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the country has many weapons after two decades of war, many of them in the hands of the US-trained Iraqi army.

Many of these US weapons were legally given to Iran-backed Shiite militias who were incorporated into the Iraq military forces since 2016 in the fight against the Islamic State, despite their opposition to the US presence in Iraq.