Iraq airport near Shiite shrine to partially reopen after closure in purported 9/11-style plot

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Iraq airport to reopen after 9/11-style plot

BAGHDAD — An airport in southern Iraq will reopen for domestic flights, a spokesman said Thursday, a week after its closure due to a purported 9/11-style plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate to fly hijacked planes into Shiite holy shrines.

Transportation Ministry spokesman Aqeel Hadi Kawthar said it was not clear when international flights would resume at the airport near the holy city of Najaf, which is home to the gold-domed Imam Ali shrine, one of the world’s most revered Shiite mosques.

The announcement came a day after intelligence officials in Baghdad and Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida in Iraq was planning to attack Shiite religious sites in an attempt to rekindle sectarian violence that brought the country to the bring of civil war several years ago.

Two U.S. intelligence officials in Washington confirmed the plot but said it did not appear to be fully planned out, nor was it clear that militants would be able to carry out any attacks.

Iraqi officials said they shut down the Najaf airport and temporarily closed the one in Baghdad last week. They said they have arrested two men — one of the intended pilots and an airport worker — suspected in the plot that apparently was aimed at undermining the country’s stability while U.S. troops prepare to go home.

Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi told reporters in Najaf on Wednesday that the intelligence about the attacks was unclear but “at the same time, we can’t neglect” it. He did not confirm or comment on any of the specific allegations.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari acknowledged general “threats” but denied there was a specific plot to hit holy shrines.

Kawthar on Thursday declined to say why the airport had been closed, and Iraqi and U.S. officials have refused to publicly comment on the plot.

Al-Qaida in Iraq has been blamed for a recent violence in Baghdad, and security officials believe the terror network is trying to regroup during the political disarray left by the March 7 parliamentary elections, which failed to produce a clear winner.

The alleged plot also comes as American forces plan to send home all but 50,000 troops by Aug. 31, with the rest scheduled to follow by the end of 2011 as required by a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.

Targeting holy sites has long been once of the hallmark of the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida in Iraq.

Najaf is also home to Iraq’s senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and is the site of one of the first car bombings as the Sunni-led insurgency got under way: a blast outside the Imam Ali mosque that killed at least 95 people on Aug. 29, 2003.

Associated Press Writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Lara Jakes contributed to this report.