MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) – Jordan's flag carrier and one of main airlines serving in Iraq, Royal Jordanian, on Saturday suspended all flights to Baghdad for at least 24 hours on security grounds, Reuters reported citing an airline spokesman.
Royal Jordanian is «monitoring security developments» in Iraq and will review the resumption of flights over Iraqi airspace on Sunday, the agency quoted spokesman Basel Al Kilani as saying.
The airline performs 30 flights to Iraq per week, including 11 flights to Baghdad.
Royal Jordanian stopped its twice-weekly flights to the northern city of Mosul when it was seized by the Islamic State (IS) militant group in June.
Earlier Air France-KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Air Berlin, LOT and QANTAS also suspended their flights over the territory of Iraq citing security concerns. Germany’s Lufthansa said it would avoid flights over certain Iraqi territories while British Airways said it had no plans to suspend flights yet, but it was monitoring the situation in the country.
Security threat rose in Iraq amid intensified activities of the Sunni group Islamic State (IS) in early July. The IS militants, who fought in Syria, led the offensive in Iraq’s northern and western areas in June. They were joined by Iraq’s Sunnis, Saddam Hussein’s Army troops and minor terrorist groups.
