Iraqi authorities have rerouted air traffic over Najaf because of possible plots by Sunni Islamist insurgents to fly hijacked planes into one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines in the city, officials said.
A Defence Ministry spokesman today denied reports a plot to crash a passenger jet into the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, in southern Iraq, had been foiled while local Iraqi officials said reports like that had circulated for up to a year.
A US counterterrorism official said there was some substance to the reports.
"There are indications that such a plot was, in fact, in the works. It may not have been that far along, but that's obviously a key question people are looking at now," the official said in Washington.
"And the Iraqis are working hard to make sure that everyone connected to it is wrapped up."
Najaf airport, a busy hub for Shi'ite pilgrims from Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain and elsewhere, has been closed for a week on what Minister for Transport Amer Abdul-Jabbar Ismail said was the orders of the National Security Council. Baghdad airport was also closed but soon reopened.
"Najaf airport is so close to the centre of the city, which makes it different to other airports," Ismail told reporters in Najaf.
"All (air) routes to the airport have been changed so that they do not come close to Najaf."
He did not elaborate.
Najaf and other Shi'ite holy sites in Iraq have seen a flood of Shi'ite pilgrims since the US invasion in 2003 ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Iraq's Shi'ite majority was often brutally oppressed by Saddam and Shi'ite religious rites banned.
An attack on a major Shi'ite holy site could fuel sectarian violence. Iraq is especially vulnerable now, after a March 7th election that produced no clear winner.
Reuters