Airline says flights are resuming
Fly Baghdad website goes offline after U.S. sanctions
BAGHDAD, January 24 — The website of Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad went offline Tuesday, less than 24 hours after a U.S. Treasury Department decision to sanction the company and its CEO Alwan Al-Shabbani for alleged transport of weapons and funds for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and armed factions in Syria.
Visitors to the Fly Baghdad website were met with a message stating, ‘This website can’t be reached,’ when attempting to access it.
A search on website monitoring service isitdownrightnow.com showed the Fly Baghdad site’s servers were unresponsive, confirming it was offline.
Fly Baghdad announced on its Facebook page that flights have not been affected by the U.S. decision. The company confirmed that all operations were continuing as normal and had not been suspended.
However, despite the company’s announcement, a number of travel agencies informed passengers who had booked flights on Fly Baghdad that five flights to Turkey, Lebanon, and the UAE scheduled for this week had been canceled. The company had not issued any clarification on the cancellations at the time of reporting.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a decision on January 22 that it had imposed sanctions on Fly Baghdad airline for supporting operations of the IRGC-affiliated Quds Force and its proxies by transporting personnel and equipment throughout the region. Additionally, Fly Baghdad was accused of being used by Hezbollah to transport fighters, weapons, and funds to Syria and Lebanon to support the Syrian regime.
Fly Baghdad requests evidence from U.S. on arms transfers to Syria
