Shafaq News– Baghdad

A South Korean aviation firm has offered to equip each Iraqi province with two aircraft for firefighting and rescue missions, the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on Saturday.

According to a statement, during a meeting in Baghdad, Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari and a delegation from the Korean company that previously supplied two aircraft to support Civil Defense operations discussed expanding cooperation in interior aviation and procuring a helicopter fleet dedicated to firefighting and emergency response.

The move comes as Iraq’s Civil Defense Directorate reported a 58% decline in fire incidents in 2025, attributing the drop to increased staffing and the launch of more than 100 new fire and rescue units equipped with modern vehicles and tools imported from Germany, Japan, the United States, and South Korea.

In October 2025, the Civil Defense Directorate received its first firefighting and rescue helicopter, marking “a milestone upgrade” for the agency since its founding in 1956, under a $93.7 million contract with Korea Aerospace Industries for two KUH-1 Surion helicopters customized for disaster response. The contract also includes pilot and engineer training, with full operational deployment expected by 2029.