Iraq on Sunday launched domestic passenger flights for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, sending two planes through no-fly zones enforced by the United States and Britain, the official news agency INA announced.
It said an Ilyushin plane of Iraqi Airways took off for Basra in southern Iraq while an Antonov, another Russian-built aircraft, was headed for the northern city of Mosul.
The planes left from Baghdad's Saddam International Airport at around 1:15 pm (1015 GMT), after a delay of several hours on the original take-off time, said INA.
"Aggressive actions will not deter the Iraqis from exercising their right to have air links inside the country and abroad," Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Saturday.
Officials at the United Nations have said that Iraqi domestic flights, suspended since the Gulf War over Kuwait, are legal under UN sanctions.
But a spokesman for the US diplomatic mission in New York said last week that "for reasons of safety, it would be helpful if Iraq notified the UN about schedules and routes." This would avoid possible incidents in the no-fly zones.
Britain and the United States enforce the zones above the 36th parallel and below the 33rd to keep out Iraqi military planes, in a declared mission to protect the Kurds and Shiites of northern and southern Iraq.
Their patrols launched from Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and carriers in Gulf waters result in frequent clashes with the air defenses of Iraq, which refuses to recognize the zones that are not covered by any UN resolution -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
