DOHA: Iraqi Airways resumed flights from Baghdad to the Qatari capital on Friday for the first time in 18 years, an AFP journalist reported. Welcoming the flight, Iraq’s ambassador in Doha, Jawad Kadhem Al-Hindawi, said his country’s national carrier planned two flights a week initially to Qatar, one from Baghdad and the other from the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Iraqi Airways aircraft were grounded by the international embargo that followed the Iraqi invasion of its tiny neighbor Kuwait in August, 1990. Following the US-led invasion of March 2003 that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, the airline resumed operations, flying mostly to Arab countries, Iran and Turkey.