Procurement: Buckshot for Iraq

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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.