Iraq, Kuwait to resume flights after 22-year halt

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Transportation Ministry says that country's airline will resume commercial flights to Kuwait for the first time since Saddam Hussein's forces invaded the Gulf nation in 1990.

A statement posted on the ministry's official website said Monday that flights between the two "brotherly countries" is due to start next Wednesday for the first time in more than 22 years.

The decision follows an agreement designed to end a long-running dispute over reparations for Kuwaiti airways. Baghdad agreed to pay $500 million in compensation to Kuwait's national carrier for damage caused during the occupation.

Kuwaiti authorities said earlier that the flights would start at the beginning of this month.

Although the airline dispute appears settled, other disputes over war reparations remain. U.S.-led forces drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in early 1991.