A senior official from Baghdad announced Thursday that Iraq has received initial arms shipments form Russia as part of a 4.3 billion USD deal initially signed in October 2012, according to an AFP report.
The contract was previously annulled publicly due to corruption allegations, but Iraqi's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that the deal was kept following a review of the charges.
Moscow media reported that the deal includes 30 Mi-28 attack helicopters and 42 Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile systems.
According to the Iraq government media advisor, Ali al-Musawi, the deal is a reflection of Baghdad's interests to obtain helicopters that can be used by military personnel to target rebels conducting attacks across the country.
The completion of the shipment will make Russia Iraq's second largest arms supplier after the United States.
