ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Lufthansa will resume flights to Erbil on August 27, the German aviation giant announced on Friday as concerns about a regional conflict has led to many airlines avoiding Middle Eastern airspace. “Flights to Amman and Erbil will resume from August 27. A northern corridor in Iraqi airspace will be used for flights to Erbil,” read the statement on Lufthansa Group’s website. Numerous international airlines have suspended flights to destinations in the Middle East because of rising regional tensions following the assassination of a Hamas official in Tehran at the end of July. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate. Lufthansa’s flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran remain suspended to September 2 and flights to Beirut are on hold through to the end of September. Ismail Haniyeh, politburo chief for Hamas, was killed in Tehran on July 31. His assassination came a day after the Israeli army announced that it killed Fuad Shukr (also known as Sayyid Mushan), the right hand man of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the group’s senior military commander in an airstrike targeting the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
