BAGHDAD, Iraq-- Iraq's ministry of defense announced Friday it had received four new F16 aircrafts from the US as part of its nearly $2 billion purchase of 36 such warplanes.
The aircrafts are now stationed at Balad airbase, north of the capital Baghdad, the ministry said in a short statement.
Rudaw was given exclusive access into four Iraqi bases in early November, including Balad, from where the F16 fighter jets take off for bombing missions against the positions of the so-called Islamic State in Mosul and other parts of the country.
The US has so far delivered 14 F16 aircrafts in four phases since 2014, the last batch with a total of four aircrafts arrived in Iraq in August.
#Iraq received four new F16s this weekend bringing total to ten, all playing integral role in fight against #ISIL. pic.twitter.com/xBJehIRjk2
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) August 8, 2016
The US-trained F16 pilots, some of whom are Kurds, have already carried out hundreds of airstrikes against ISIS.
The US temporarily postponed the delivery of the planes in 2014 after ISIS takeover of army installations in Nineveh province. The planes were instead sent to an Arizona air base where Iraqi pilots were being trained to fly the advanced aircraft.
