An Iraqi military delegation has gone to Serbia to bring back 19 MiG fighter planes that Saddam Hussain’s regime sent for servicing 20 years ago, the defence ministry said yesterday. “General Othman al-Fredji, a defence ministry adviser, and Anwar Mohamed Amin, head of the air force, are in Serbia negotiating the return (of the planes) at the earliest possible date,” spokesman General Mohamed al-Askari said. The Soviet-built MiG-21 and 23 aircraft, whose existence has just been discovered, “were sent by Saddam’s government in 1989 for maintenance and everything was paid for with Iraqi money,” he said. Askari said the planes are important for Iraq as “our air force only possesses helicopters.” The former Yugoslavia was a major exporter of arms to Saddam’s dictatorship. Askari said the ministry “is searching in the US, France, Italy, Russia and some Arab countries to locate funds or military equipment that the former government bought for its army.”