A U.S. military plane took off with over 5,000 Czech rockets for grenade launchers for the Kurds fighting Islamic State militants from the Pardubice airport before noon, Czech General Staff spokeswoman Jana Růžičková told the Czech News Agency.


At the end of September, 8 million units of rounds for machine guns were flown to Kurds.

The C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft of the U.S. military flew from Pardubice to Irbil in Iraq.

“In all, over 5,000 rockets for RPG 7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers weighing 27 tons were taken from the Czech military's stores,” Ruzickova said.

On Friday, a Czech military CASA plane brought special transport equipment for the U.S. aircraft and U.S. troops from Ramstein, Germany, to Pardubice.

Along with their Czech counterparts, they prepared the ammunition for the flight and loaded it.

At the end of August, the Czech government approved the donation of ammunition to Kurds worth 41 million Kč. It was the total of 500 tons of materiel from the military reserves.

The Czech state has also offered 10 million rounds for the Kalashnikovs and 5,000 hand grenades to the Kurds.

A coalition headed by the US supports the Kurds in their fight against Islamic State (IS).

In mid-October, President Miloš Zeman said the Czech Republic should adopt a tougher stand on IS and along with ammunition, it should send weapons to the Kurds.

In the future, the Kurds wounded in the hostilities in northern Iraq may be treated in Czech spas, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek (Social Democrats, ČSSD) told their representatives during his visit to Iraq in November.

Prague Post