Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq fell 20 years ago, and over the years, many secrets of his reign were uncovered. But we still don’t really know much about the small arms industry of Saddam’s era. Engineers and managers of Iraq’s military factories vanished without a trace, and there was never much official information available. In a previous article, the Tabuk AK was covered, the main service rifle of the Iraqi military. But there was another, arguably more famous rifle in Saddam’s Iraq.
Everyone who remembers the 2003 invasion likely can recall pictures of U.S. servicemen with gold-plated AKs — definitely a great trophy. Exactly the same rifles were gifted to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and to this day, those golden weapons reside in the Abdeen Palace Museum in Cairo. Another rifle like that was presented to the king of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz bin Fahd Al Saud by Saddam himself.
But, if you glance just beyond the bling, even without the gold, this AK itself
