Today’s photos of the Day are from Iraq (specifically, from Ramadi) from 2008. Iraq was known to use many interesting or improvised articles that it had to rely on after much of its military power was destroyed during the Gulf War. Its vehicle park included some truly exotic stuff, like this North Korean 170mm “Koksan” artillery.
How it got to Iraq is not exactly documented, but North Korean tech is appearing in the Middle East for decades. The fat pig… excuse me, “glorious leader” is using nork military junk to improve the situation of its country, selling it to anyone desperate enough to buy it. The most recent nork appearance includes MANPADS and some infantry weapons in Syria.
IIRC, they were captured from Iran during the Iran-Iraq War, and Iran had originally purchased the from North Korea. At least that’s what you can find on the internet. I also don’t think I’ve heard anything about Iraq actually using them, much like the Iraqi M36 Jacksons also captured from Iran, they were probably more trophies or “gate guards” than anything else. I’ve seen pictures of entire fleets of Iranian tanks captured by Iraq before too. Will have to see if I can dig them up at this point.