Photos: Thousands of illegal guns destroyed in Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The General Directorate of Security (Asayish) in Erbil announced on Thursday that 5,000 unlicensed guns have been destroyed by its forces.

The illegal guns had been confiscated during various security operations in the capital city of Erbil as well as multiple outlying districts and sub-districts over the past few years.

Those whom they were seized from included both private citizens and smugglers, often part of criminal gangs.

In mid-September, provincial security services seized about 1,500 Turkish-made guns in a house inside Erbil city.

The illegal weapons were laid out on the street and then run over by a road roller construction vehicle under the supervision of a special committee inside the Asayish building in Erbil. The crushed remains were transported to an iron factory to be melted down and recycled.

Editing by John J. Catherine