Iraq dissolves national airline over decades-old financial dispute with Kuwait

Iraq dissolves Iraqi Airways over Kuwait dispute

BAGHDAD — A Transportation Ministry spokesman says Iraq’s government has decided to dissolve state-owned Iraqi Airways because it is bankrupt from a decades-old financial dispute with Kuwait.

The spokesman Karim al-Tamimi said Wednesday that the government made the decision on Tuesday, when the airline declared bankruptcy.

Oil-rich Kuwait is demanding $1.2 billion in reparations from the airliner for alleged theft of 10 airplanes and millions of dollars worth of spare parts during Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of the neighboring Gulf state.