Egyptian airline EgyptAir said on Tuesday it would suspend flights to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad for the period from January 8 to 10 for security reasons amid escalation of tensions in the region after the US assassination of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2020) Egyptian airline EgyptAir said on Tuesday it would suspend flights to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad for the period from January 8 to 10 for security reasons amid escalation of tensions in the region after the US assassination of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
"In connection with the unstable security situation faced by the Iraqi city of Baghdad, it was decided to suspend EgyptAir flights to this city from Wednesday, January 8, to Friday, January 10," the company said.
According to the statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation is monitoring the situation and will decide on the resumption of flights as soon as the situation improves. Passengers who book flights on these dates are requested to contact the airline to change the departure date.
In the early hours of Friday, Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, was killed on the outskirts of Baghdad in a drone strike, which was authorized by US President Donald Trump. Shortly after, the US Embassy in Baghdad called on US citizens to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Baghdad has condemned the attack as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, protesting the use of its territory by the United States for attacks on other countries.
Just a week before, the United States accused the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group of launching an attack on a US military base near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, which killed a US contractor on December 27. In retaliation, the US launched a strike against Kataib Hezbollah's forces on Sunday killing about two dozen of its fighters, which, in turn, triggered Shiite protesters' attempts to storm the gates of the US embassy in Baghdad.
