May 10, 2007:
Iraq is buying half a billion dollars
worth of munitions and fuel from the United States. The items include 134.3
million gallons of fuel (diesel, gasoline and aviation), 600,000 12 gauge
buckshot rounds, 16 million 9mm, 226 million 5.56mm (including 40 million
blanks for training), 40 million 7.62mm machine-gun rounds, 100 million
7.62x39mm for AK-47s, 20 million .50 caliber, 170,000 40mm grenades, 40 tons of
C4 explosives (plus detonators), and 220,000 flash and smoke grenades. Iraq
does not have the refinery capacity to produce oil based fuel for its own needs,
and must import most of it. Iraqi ammunition factories are still shut down.