Kuwait suspends flights to Iraq after Baghdad airport assault | Aviation Information

Transfer comes after six rockets had been fired at Iraqi capital’s airport, inflicting harm to at least one runway, two civilian planes.

Kuwait suspended flights to Iraq for per week beginning Sunday citing safety fears after a rocket assault focused Baghdad Worldwide Airport. Iraqi authorities, in the meantime, introduced an attacker was apprehended.

Kuwait Airways, the nation’s foremost service, stated in a press release on Saturday that flights to Iraq had been briefly suspended primarily based on directions from the Kuwaiti Civil Aviation Authority due to “present circumstances”.

Six rockets had been fired on Friday on the Iraqi capital’s airport, inflicting harm to at least one runway and two civilian planes however no casualties. It was the most recent in a string of assaults the USA blamed on Iran-linked armed teams.

Iran condemned “the concentrating on of Baghdad airport” in an assault it stated aimed to “destabilise” Iraq.

“Such suspicious actions have created insecurity and unrest in Iraq, paving the best way for the ill-wishers and the insurgents, and affecting the federal government’s companies to the Iraqi residents,” Iran’s Overseas Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stated in a press release on Saturday.

The assault was not instantly claimed however Iraqi authorities stated they apprehended a suspect at a checkpoint close to the northern province of Kirkuk en path to Erbil within the Kurdish-run semi-autonomous area.

Following the assault, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi urged the worldwide neighborhood to not impose restrictions on journey to Iraq, whereas Iraqi Airways stated the assault didn’t triggered any disruptions and flights would proceed.

Individually, Iraq’s army stated late Saturday it had killed 9 ISIL (ISIS) fighters suspected of staging a lethal ambush within the northern province of Diyala. The gunmen stormed a military barracks earlier than daybreak whereas the troopers slept inside and killed 11.

The fighters had been killed with three F-16 airstrikes, with extra operations deliberate to root out sleeper cells, Iraq’s army stated.

Iraq is witnessing an uptick in IS-related assaults. Fighters have lengthy exploited the safety vacuum throughout a band of disputed territory in northern Iraq.