Dear Owain,
thank you for your very detailled and helpful answer. I was beginning to question Iraq as the point of origin myself, as the medal looked nothing like Iraqi medals.
Too bad the medal was in such high circulation - I was going to sell it, but now it does not seem worth the effort. I'll keep it as a conversatoion piece.
(I got it as colleteral for a debt I was not planning to collect on in the first place).
All the best,
Karsten