Iraq buys Baghdad for $14 million
25/12/2011 13:45

Baghdad, Dec. 25 (AKnews) - Iraq has spent $14 million USD (16 billion IQD) a 7,000 ton commercial freighter called Baghdad.

The director of the Marine Shipping Company Samir al-Karkhi told AKnews the vessel will enter service in February and will address many of the obstacles faced by shipping in Iraq.

"The Ministry of Transport is making great efforts to restore the merchant fleet in the country."

Iraq is trying to refurbish and rebuild its merchant navy. The dozen or so vessels in working under an Iraqi flag from the 1950s were seized or destroyed in the first and second Gulf Wars or as a consequence of U.N. sanctions that followed in 1991. The government plans to rebuild the Iraqi civil flotilla by buying nine large ships at a cost of $110 million USD (128 billion IQD).

By Jaafar al-Wannan

RN/JS/AKnews