Monday, September 17, 2007
Kurdistan flights to Sweden and Germany to resume
Kurdistan
(KRG) - KRG (Kurdistan regional government) minister of transportation Burhan saeid Sofi announced during a press conference that Kurdistan Region Flights to Resume to Sweden and Germany in the next week. "Kurdistan region's sky is secure and investigations of the Swedish airlines company showed that news that allegedly Swedish airplanes has been shot were baseless" said, KRG minister of transportation.
"Flights from Sweden to Sulaimaniyah will resume by the next week, but another company will conduct those flights." He added. In August, Sweden has suspended commercial flights to and from Kurdistan region (Iraq) after an apparent rocket attack against a passenger jet as it took off from the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, the Nordic country's aviation authority said Tuesday. Sulaimaniyah International Airport Authority, Kamaran Ahmed, said a local investigation found no evidence that a missile was fired and blamed the scare on bright lights being used on the ground.
"Flights from Sweden to Sulaimaniyah will resume by the next week, but another company will conduct those flights." He added. In August, Sweden has suspended commercial flights to and from Kurdistan region (Iraq) after an apparent rocket attack against a passenger jet as it took off from the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, the Nordic country's aviation authority said Tuesday. Sulaimaniyah International Airport Authority, Kamaran Ahmed, said a local investigation found no evidence that a missile was fired and blamed the scare on bright lights being used on the ground.
Labels: Burhan saeid Sofi, Germany, KRG, Nordic Airways, Sulaimaniyah, Sweden
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Sweden suspends Iraq flights
Kurdistan
(AP) -- Sweden has suspended commercial flights to and from Iraq after an apparent rocket attack against a passenger jet as it took off from the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, the Nordic country's aviation authority said Tuesday. In the incident last Wednesday, pilots of the Nordic Airways plane carrying 130 passengers noticed a trail of light arching over the aircraft just after takeoff, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Anders Lundblad said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD83 plane was not hit, and arrived safely in Stockholm. Lundblad said the incident was being investigated, but that preliminary information suggested "some kind of rocket" was fired at the plane. The authority suspended all commercial airline traffic between Sweden and Iraq last week pending a review of the security situation in northern Iraq.
It is rare for such violence to occur in Sulaimaniyah, a city in Iraq's relatively peaceful autonomous Kurdish region, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. The Swedish decision affected two small airlines: Nordic Airways, which flies once a week between Stockholm and Sulaimaniyah, and Viking Airlines, which operates four flights a week between Stockholm and Irbil, also in northern Iraq.
Nordic Airways had rebooked passengers departing from Iraq on other airlines, while some 3,000 people booked on Viking Airlines flights were stranded in Iraq, the aviation authority said. Sweden is home to more than 70,000 Iraqi immigrants, many of whom come from the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq.
Mikael Wangdahl, Chief Executive of Nordic Airways said the incident was immediately reported to air traffic controllers and the U.S. military. The pilots then were advised to continue the flight, but to take a shorter route. Passengers and cabin crew did not notice what happened, Wangdahl said, but crew members were briefed about it after the plane landed in Stockholm. Kurdish authorities have denied there was an attack.
The McDonnell Douglas MD83 plane was not hit, and arrived safely in Stockholm. Lundblad said the incident was being investigated, but that preliminary information suggested "some kind of rocket" was fired at the plane. The authority suspended all commercial airline traffic between Sweden and Iraq last week pending a review of the security situation in northern Iraq.
It is rare for such violence to occur in Sulaimaniyah, a city in Iraq's relatively peaceful autonomous Kurdish region, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. The Swedish decision affected two small airlines: Nordic Airways, which flies once a week between Stockholm and Sulaimaniyah, and Viking Airlines, which operates four flights a week between Stockholm and Irbil, also in northern Iraq.
Nordic Airways had rebooked passengers departing from Iraq on other airlines, while some 3,000 people booked on Viking Airlines flights were stranded in Iraq, the aviation authority said. Sweden is home to more than 70,000 Iraqi immigrants, many of whom come from the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq.
Mikael Wangdahl, Chief Executive of Nordic Airways said the incident was immediately reported to air traffic controllers and the U.S. military. The pilots then were advised to continue the flight, but to take a shorter route. Passengers and cabin crew did not notice what happened, Wangdahl said, but crew members were briefed about it after the plane landed in Stockholm. Kurdish authorities have denied there was an attack.
Labels: Anders Lundblad, Kurdistan, Mikael Wangdahl, Nordic Airways, Sulaimaniyah, Sweden, Viking Airlines
Monday, August 13, 2007
Kurdish officials dismiss reports of attack on Swedish plane
Security
(Kurdistan Observer) - Aviation officials from Iraq's Kurdish region on Saturday dismissed reports that a Swedish airliner had been targeted by a missile as it took off with 130 passengers on board. According to the Swedish TT news agency, the pilots of a Nordic Airways MD-83 jet saw flashes in the sky on Thursday as they took off from Sulaimani in Southern Kurdistan and feared they may be under attack.
But the chairman of the Sulaimani Airport Authority, Kamaran Ahmed, said a local investigation found no evidence that a missile was fired and blamed the scare on bright lights being used on the ground."We think that the object that had been noticed by the pilot 'suspiciously' was a special type of 'high intensity lighting projector' mounted on vehicles usually used by hunters in the area," he said, in a statement in English. The beam could also have been from a light used by farmers during a rush to harvest in the region, the statement added, while insisting that security forces had searched a 30-kilometre (18-mile) diameter area around the airport.
The Kurdish regional government also said there was no reason to worry."No plane at the Sulaimani International Airport has come under attack. This is untrue and baseless news," its spokesman Khalid Saleh told AFP. Autonomous Kurdish region is proud that it has managed to escape the worst of the violence that has gripped the centre and south of the country since the US-led invasion of March 2003. The mountainous region has opened air links to several European and regional destinations and launched an international advertising drive designed to lure tourists and investors to Sulaimani and its capital Arbil. Nordic flies from Stockholm to Sulaimani once a week.
Labels: Kamaran Ahmed, Khalid Saleh, Nordic Airways, Sulaimaniya, Sweden
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Minorities in Iraq may be given safe haven in Ninevah
Humanitarian
(AINA) Iraq's Christians suffer much from persecution and are fleeing the country. Iraq's non-Muslim minorities, most of them Assyrians (Syriacs and Chaldeans) face systematic cleansing in the shadow of the Iraq war. Now even the U.S department for Foreign Affairs is ringing the alarm bell exclusively for Metro by stating that they regard the situation seriously and that they have taken several measures in order to stop the persecution. One of the solutions can be a safe haven. In talks with Metro the U.S department for Foreign Affairs has opened up for the possibility to give Christians, and other minorities, in Iraq an area of their own, where they will be safe.
In the north of Iraq, just south of Kurdistan, there is an area named Nineveh which is almost entirely populated by Iraq's minorities, most of them Christians. Many are now calling for this area to become an administrative area of its own, a protective zone, where Christian Iraqis can feel safe.
We are working to enhance the consciousness among members of Congress and request from the American Congress to support that Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs and other minorities who live parallel to them in the north part, which is called the Nineveh Plaines, shall have their own administrative area. There is support for this in the Iraqi constitution says Michael Youash from the think-tank called Iraqi Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington.
The President of the Assyrian Federation of Sweden, Simon Barmano, says he supports the proposition and wants the Swedish government to act so the Assyrians may have a sanctuary. That is also the standpoint of Fredrick Malm, spokesman of the Swedish co-governing liberal party, Folkpartiet, on issues of political refugees. "I support autonomy for the Assyrians in Nineveh," he says, "But their safety and security must also be guaranteed."
Another reason for wanting a safe haven is the possibility that the large number of refuges, now living under terrible circumstances in the neighbouring countries, may return. Many Iraqi refugees escape to Sweden.
In the north of Iraq, just south of Kurdistan, there is an area named Nineveh which is almost entirely populated by Iraq's minorities, most of them Christians. Many are now calling for this area to become an administrative area of its own, a protective zone, where Christian Iraqis can feel safe.
We are working to enhance the consciousness among members of Congress and request from the American Congress to support that Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs and other minorities who live parallel to them in the north part, which is called the Nineveh Plaines, shall have their own administrative area. There is support for this in the Iraqi constitution says Michael Youash from the think-tank called Iraqi Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington.
The President of the Assyrian Federation of Sweden, Simon Barmano, says he supports the proposition and wants the Swedish government to act so the Assyrians may have a sanctuary. That is also the standpoint of Fredrick Malm, spokesman of the Swedish co-governing liberal party, Folkpartiet, on issues of political refugees. "I support autonomy for the Assyrians in Nineveh," he says, "But their safety and security must also be guaranteed."
Another reason for wanting a safe haven is the possibility that the large number of refuges, now living under terrible circumstances in the neighbouring countries, may return. Many Iraqi refugees escape to Sweden.
Labels: Assyrians, Iraqi constitution, Ninevah, Sweden, U.S department for Foreign Affairs
