Flights briefly suspended at Iraqi Kurdistan's two airports over security concerns

Reason behind suspension of flights at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah hubs unknown

Erbil airport in Iraq's Kurdistan Region. Reuters

Flights to and from two airports in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region were suspended for a few hours on Monday night.

Ano Jahwar Abdoka, the region's Transport Minister, told The National that the federal Civil Aviation Authority in Baghdad had suspended the flights at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah international airports.

Mr Abdoka would not give more details.

The Civil Aviation Authority was alerted by the regional authorities of unknown drones in the airspace, an official told The National. The suspension lasted for about four hours from 6pm local time, he said.

A security official in Baghdad said there were three drones without giving more details.

For years, Turkish troops have carried out attacks against members of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, residing in the three-province autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Ankara maintains a military presence inside Kurdistan, and it has launched large-scale military operations and air strikes via fighter aircraft and drones in the region.

In April, a Turkish drone carried out a strike on the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, in the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah airport. Mr Abdi escaped unharmed.

The PKK has been waging an insurgency against Turkey since 1984, initially seeking an independent Kurdish state before changing its demands and seeking an autonomous region within Turkey. The conflict has killed about 40,000, many of them civilians.

The group has training camps and bases in Iraqi Kurdistan and has been designated as a terrorist group by the US and the EU.

Iran-backed Shiite militias also carry out attacks by drone and missile against US assets in and around Erbil airport.

However, such attacks stopped when Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani took office in October after a political agreement among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.