Iraq is to resume internal flights on November 5 after a nine-year break since the Gulf War, Transport Minister Ahmad Murtada announced Monday.
Murtada, quoted by the official news agency INA, said Iraqi Airways would link Baghdad with the northern city of Mosul and with Basra in the south. The carrier started taking reservations on Sunday.
Basra and Mosul airports, both of which lie within "no-fly" zones enforced by the United States and Britain, are technically and administratively ready to handle flights, he said.
The announcement of domestic flights follows the August 17 re-opening of Baghdad's Saddam International Airport, where a total of 34 foreign planes have since landed despite a UN air embargo.
The embargo forms part of UN sanctions slapped on Iraq for its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait that sparked the Gulf War. The UN Security Council is split over whether the embargo applies to all flights or just commercial services -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
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