Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky announced on Twitter that the first Czech L-159 combat aircraft had arrived in Iraq on Thursday.

Stropnicky said of the handover that the country had "succeeded in realizing this deal after years of failures."

Ivo Mravinac, spokesman for the Penta group that owns Aero Vodochody, the producer of the aircraft, confirmed that the Iraqi side took the first L-159 aircraft, but he would not comment on any details of the contract and on the dates of further deliveries.

The Czech military approved the sale of 15 redundant L-159s to Iraq, from which Aero Vodochody completed 12 aircraft for the Iraqi Air Force.

The Czech defense ministry had been trying to sell about three dozens of redundant L-159 combat aircraft for many years. Besides Iraq, the U.S. company Draken International bought 21 training aircraft in 2014.

The Czech military will use the money it gets for the sale of the redundant aircraft to turn three mothballed, one-seat L-159s into two-seated ones. Endit

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