ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three flights scheduled to land at Erbil International Airport were canceled early Wednesday following military exchanges between the United States and Iran.
According to the airport’s website, the canceled flights included two arrivals from Istanbul and one from Cairo, along with their corresponding return flights. The flights were scheduled for 12:50 am, 3:00 am, and 3:15 am local time on Wednesday morning, coinciding with the timing of US strikes against Iran.
For the same reason, regional air traffic disruptions extended beyond Erbil. Two Istanbul-Baghdad flights were canceled, as well as one flight from Istanbul to Tehran and three flights from Istanbul to Medina.
The cancellations came after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a series of missile strikes targeting multiple countries in the region in response to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) targeting several locations in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz.
However, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, Jihad Kadhim, told Rudaw on Wednesday the country's airspace “has not been closed and flights are continuing,” adding that “air traffic is proceeding normally and the country's airspace remains open.”
Kadhim added that cancellations are airport-level decisions, stressing they “do not imply a threat to the country's airspace, but are rather a precautionary measure.”
The US attacks followed an incident in which a US Army Apache helicopter was downed, which CENTCOM said was carried out by Iran.
In response, the IRGC said in a statement that 21 targets were struck in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. Videos circulating on social media showed air defense systems engaging incoming missiles and drones across the region.
The IRGC also said its forces used long-range solid-fuel missiles which, according to its statement, “targeted and destroyed four significant targets, including F-35 fighter jet hangars at the airbase and the command-and-control center of the child-killing US army in al-Azraq, Jordan.”
CENTCOM said its forces “struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets," adding that the operation was "a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
The exchange of strikes followed warnings from US President Donald Trump, who vowed retaliation after claiming Iran had shot down a US helicopter operating over the Strait of Hormuz.
Malik Mohammed contributed to this report.
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