Iraq airport ‘vital’ for development

AN OIL refinery in Iraq’s western desert has resumed production, the government said yesterday, as part of an outreach to an area once controlled by Sunni insurgents.

And in the country’s south, a new airport opened in Najaf in what the prime minister said was a key step in the reconstruction of a country devastated by war.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travel to Iraq every year to visit Shiite shrines in Najaf and another holy city, Karbala. The new airport is expected to boost the numbers of pious tourists.

At a ceremony, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki described the $250 million (€158m) airport as a vital element in Iraq’s economic development.

“We were determined to face the terrorism that was about to destroy Iraq. The strong will of the federal government has fought and defeated it in all of its forms,” al-Maliki said.

The refinery, located near the Syrian border in the once-violent Anbar Province, was closed in 2005 due to deteriorating security. Its rehabilitation is part of efforts by the Shiite-led government to boost services and win loyalties in the nation’s Sunni heartland.

The refinery is expected to generate local jobs and meet needs for fuel and other petroleum products in the region, which was once the main stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.