عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

First Kurdish-Iraqi Airline Flight Departs to Sweden

The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s first airline launches a flight to Sweden. (AFP)
The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s first airline launches a flight to Sweden. (AFP)
TT
TT

First Kurdish-Iraqi Airline Flight Departs to Sweden

The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s first airline launches a flight to Sweden. (AFP)
The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s first airline launches a flight to Sweden. (AFP)

The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s first airline launched on Monday a flight to Sweden, after years of delays caused by the ISIS offensive in the country.

Officials hope Fly Erbil's take-off is a sign of changing fortunes in the autonomous region, which has suffered from the extremist onslaught and a failed independence bid.

"ISIS delayed our project but today, we mark real progress," said the airline's chief executive, Laund Sheikh Mamundi, explaining the three-year delay since Fly Erbil first announced its launch.

The airline currently has three planes and hopes to increase its fleet to 10, administrative director Ahmad Jamal told AFP.

The company advertises flights to five European countries including Germany and the UK, targeting destinations with large Iraqi communities and investors who operate in Iraq, Jamal said.

Dressed in a navy blue uniform with golden buttons to match the airline's logo, flight attendant Nisrine Rachid was thrilled the crew would be working in the Kurdish language.

"I think that makes them happy and we are delighted to serve them in Kurdish," she said, ahead of the Boeing jet departing from Erbil airport.

Iraqi Kurdistan benefited from an economic boom after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, while the rest of the country descended into violence.

But the lightning offensive of ISIS in 2014 led to a significant fall in investments.

Last year, a controversial referendum on Kurdish independence led to a series of retaliatory measures by Baghdad which ruled the vote illegal.

Disputed areas and their oil fields were retaken by the central government -- a massive hit for the region -- while a nearly six-month air blockade was imposed on Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports.

Kurdistan has relied on its oil wealth to pay back its debts, having borrowed more than $3 billion over three years and paying up with monthly installments of oil barrels.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Syria Rescuers, Activist Say Site outside Damascus Believed to Be Mass Grave

This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

Syria Rescuers, Activist Say Site outside Damascus Believed to Be Mass Grave

This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)

A key Syrian rescue group and an activist told AFP on Wednesday a burial site outside Damascus was likely a mass grave for detainees held under former president Bashar al-Assad and fighters killed in the civil war.

In a vast walled area located near the Baghdad Bridge, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital, AFP journalists visiting the site saw a long row of graves more than one meter deep, mostly covered with cement slabs.

Several of the slabs had been moved and inside, white bags could be seen stacked over each other with names and numbers written on them. One of the bags contained a human skull and bones.

"We think this is a mass grave -- we found an open grave with seven bags filled with bones," said Abdel Rahman Mawas from the White Helmets rescue group, which visited the site several days earlier.

He told AFP by telephone that the bags, six of which bore names, were "taken to a secure location", adding that "necessary procedures were begun for DNA testing".

He said if additional graves had been exposed it meant other people may have been searching the site, warning people to "stay away from graves and let the relevant authorities handle them".

The site, near the Adra industrial area northeast of the capital, is less than 20 kilometers from the Saydnaya prison.

Diab Serriya, from the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, said the site was first identified in 2019 through "testimony of an intelligence personnel member who had deserted".

Satellite imagery suggests the site was in use from 2014, he said.

"Probably this grave contains detainees but also former regime or opposition fighters killed in battle," he told AFP by telephone.

The notorious Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomized the atrocities committed against Assad's opponents.

Serriya said "the bags of bones were probably brought from other graves", adding that "the road to discovering who is buried here will be long".

The doors of Syria's prisons were flung open after an opposition alliance ousted Assad this month, more than 13 years after his brutal repression of anti-government protests triggered a war that would kill more than 500,000 people.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of the conflict.

Mohammed Ali from the Adra municipal council denied residents were aware of the site, which is located near a Syrian army facility.

"It was forbidden to approach it or take photos as it was a military zone," he told AFP.