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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's national flag carrier will begin its first direct flights from Baghdad to Washington next year, Iraqi Airways' Director General Osama Sadr told reporters on Wednesday. "The preparation has been done after several meetings were held with the administrative bodies of the airports that Iraq is planning to travel to," Sadr said, announcing that flights also would be starting to Belarus and Tunisia. Sadr said the airline is trying to connect Iraq to most countries around the world, and the airline is busy negotiating with airports where it wants to land. Baqr Jabr Zubaidi, from Iraq's Ministry...

Gainesville -- Officials at Mar-Jac Poultry said they were shocked to find out Thursday that federal officials suspect the company might have ties to terrorist funding. Company Vice President Doug Carnes said at least a half-dozen U.S. Customs agents spent all day Wednesday gathering financial records and charitable contribution files. They were "real nice, professional and complimentary," he said, but they didn't disclose the nature of their visit. It was only on Thursday that Carnes was alerted by company officials in Virginia as to what the agents were looking for. "I'm shocked. I'm in disbelief. I've worked for them for...

There was a time when Iraqi Airways criss-crossed the globe, operating flights from Baghdad to cosmopolitan destinations including Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Bombay and a host of other cities. But that was nearly three decades ago — before the economically ruinous Iran-Iraq war, two other wars involving the United States and its allies, a no-fly zone and crippling U.N. sanctions. The long slide into decay was both painful and inevitable. By the time Saddam Hussein was toppled from power in 2003, numerous abandoned Iraqi Airways jets sat rusting on the tarmac in at least three regional airports, and the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq on Monday signed two deals worth $5 billion to buy 40 planes from Boeing and 10 planes from Canada's Bombardier to upgrade Iraqi Airways' aging fleet. The deals were signed by Finance Minister Bayan Jabr in a ceremony attended by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as U.S., British and Canadian diplomats. The first Boeing plane will be delivered in 2013, Jabr said, while the Canadian company will start delivering the planes later this year.

AMMAN (Zawya Dow Jones) - The Iraqi Transport Ministry will soon sign a contract with Boeing Co. worth $6 billion to buy 40 aircraft in what appears to be a step to facilitate increasing traffic to and from Iraq, the official al-Sabaah newspaper reported Thursday. "The ministry will sign in the nearest future a contract with the U.S. Boeing Co. to purchase 40 aircraft of different sizes to be added to the Iraqi Airways fleet," the paper quoted deputy transport minister, Bankin Rikani, as saying. The national carrier will receive the new planes in 2013 and 2014, he said....

<p>The former number two official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force claims the former Iraqi dictator moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria in the months preceding the current Iraq war.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen opened fire Thursday on a bus carrying female employees of Iraqi Airways to the Baghdad airport, killing one woman and wounding 14 others, an airline official said. The new violence came as Britain agreed to a U.S. request to move nearly 900 British troops from the south to more volatile central Iraq in order to free up American forces for a stepped-up campaign against Sunni insurgents. The British government agreed to the move despite fierce opposition within the governing Labour Party — where many saw it as a political gift to President Bush ahead of November...

More Good News From Iraq The MSMs Will Not Report Iraqi Airways resumes international flights after 14 years National carrier Iraqi Airways has launched its first international flight in 14 years with a plane taking off from Amman to Baghdad - but without any passengers.

NATIONAL carrier Iraqi Airways launched its first international flight in 14 years today, with a plane taking off from Amman to Baghdad - without passengers. The airline had been grounded since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent UN sanctions imposed on the former regime of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. It has only one functioning plane, a Boeing 737. Airline official Fathi Nassar said the plane left Amman without any passengers because the resumption of flights was announced too late for tickets to be sold. The 737 made a test flight from Amman to Baghdad on August 23 for...

Iraqi Airways to start scheduled flights from Arbil airport Baghdad, Iraq Press, January 24, 2004 – Iraqi Airways is planning to resume international scheduled flights from an airport in the Kurdish city of Arbil, according to the national carrier’s Director-General Muhanad al-Mufti. Insurgents have repeatedly attacked the International Baghdad Airport, currently under US occupation. The airport, formerly known as Saddam International Airport, is now mainly used for military flights. Mufti said the airport in Arbil was safer and had the facilities necessary for both domestic and international flights. Communications Minister Behnam Zaya Polos visited Arbil last month and met with...