Hungary will send ammunition to Iraq to help the war-torn country's armed forces in their fight against "terrorism", the EU country's Ministry of Defence said in a statement late Thursday. The ammunition includes several million cartridges, thousand of mines and several thousand armour-piercing shells. Csaba Hende, Hungary's minister of defence, said on Friday that the ammunition was ready to be transported but stopped short of saying when it would leave Hungary.
The ministry said in the statement that the advance of the Islamic State in Iraq threatens the existence of Christian communities and other minorities in the country. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asked Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council in a letter to discuss the fate of the Iraqi Christian minority at the next EU summit at the end of August.
EU ministers agreed last week to back arming of overwhelmed Iraqi Kurdish fighters in the face of an onslaught by Islamic State militants. Other EU countries, like Germany, France, the UK and Italy have also decided to supply weapons to Iraqis to fight the Islamic State. Hungary participated in the war in Iraq in 2003 with a transportation battalion and later with a training squad. In 2005 Hungary donated 77 T-72 tanks and 36 armoured personnel carriers to Iraq. Hungary also had a sizeable contingent in Afghanistan until 2013.