Iraq flies two more planes in defiance of no-fly zones

The official Iraqi News Agency said the flight to Basra, 550 kilometers (343 miles) south of Baghdad, left at about 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) with eight passengers on board, while the one to Mosul, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, left about 30 minutes earlier with 14.

On Sunday, Iraq flew a total of 156 passengers to the two cities, using converted Russian-made military cargo aircraft. The type of aircraft used on Monday was not known.

Iraq's fleet of 15 Boeing airliners was moved to Jordan, Iran and Tunisia to escape bombing during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait. They remain abroad.

Iraq announced the resumption of domestic flights on Oct. 30 and Transport Minister Ahmed Murtada Ahmed Khalil said Sunday that flights will take off daily to the two cities.

The United States says Iraqi military planes have often violated the non-fly zones over the north and south of Iraq with quick in-and-out forays since December 1998, when the Arab nation began challenging the patrols.

The new challenges though in military aircraft marked the first civilian flights into the no-fly zones, which the United States and Britain say are needed to protect Kurdish and Shiite Muslim minorities from Iraqi forces. Iraq says the zones, which are not mandated by the United Nations, violate its sovereignty and international law and has been firing missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at the U.S. and British warplanes.

The U.S.-British patrols bar fixed-wing Iraqi aircraft or helicopters from entering the zones. There has so far been no word on whether Iraq had given Britain and the United States advance notice of the domestic flights.

"We will continue to monitor closely any Iraqi aviation to determine whether it poses a threat to our forces, Iraq's neighbors or the Iraqi people," a U.S. State Department official said on Sunday. "We reiterate that the Iraqis should notify the U.N. of all civilian flight schedules and routes no less than 48 hours in advance of each flight," said the spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The resumption of domestic flights follows the arrival in Baghdad in recent weeks of dozens of international flights from non-governmental organizations and foreign countries seeking an end to U.N. sanctions imposed to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990.

In a move to encourage flights to the country, Iraq announced on Monday that it will refuel incoming aircraft free of charge and will not collect any airport tax or charges, a transportation ministry official told the official Iraqi News Agency.

(AP)