Iraq PM: “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has acknowledged that security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when the ISIL Takfiri group overran the northern city of Mosul.

“In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,”Abadi said on Sunday in an interview with Iraqiya state TV. “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.”

The crisis in Iraq escalated after the ISIL militants took control of Mosul, in a lightning advance on June 10, 2014.

ISIL has used captured Humvees, which were provided to Iraq by the United States, in subsequent attacks, reports said.

While the exact price of the vehicles varies depending on how they are armored and equipped, it is clearly a huge loss on the government’s side.

In 2014, the US State Department approved a possible sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees with increased armor, machine guns, grenade launchers as well as other gear and support that was estimated to cost $579 million.

The Takfiris gained ample arms, ammunition, and other equipment when multiple Iraqi divisions fell apart in the country’s north and west.