As Iraq buys up foreign arms and aircraft one man in a province northeast of Baghdad has taken an alternative approach to the billion dollar deals.
The Associated Press reports Hatim Kadim Salman is building the first Iraqi handmade helicopter to patrol the country's borders and he's doing it for just $24,000.
Salman is from Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles from Baghdad and the backyard helo effort is taking place in hat Foreign Policy and Army officials have called the "Nastiest town in Iraq".
From Foreign Policy:
Some soulless men celebrated the end of Ramadan by beheading a Sunni cleric in the Iraqi town of Muqdadiyah, and then setting the corpse on fire. His offense was that he had medical skills and had treated some of the guys in the Awakening/Sons of Iraq movement.
I remember a few years ago, a colonel in Iraq telling me that Muqdadiyah, in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, was the nastiest place he'd ever operated. I actually thought the group of towns just southwest of the capital along the Euphrates that U.S. troops called "the iyas" were the worst, but I am beginning to suspect the colonel might have been right.
The Daily Mail wrote up the news comparing the low cost effort to the $20 million Apache and points out there is no word yet on whether the aircraft will actually fly.
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