WASHINGTON: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned all US civilian flights over Iraq on Friday, just hours after air strikes ordered by Washington on Islamist fighters.
British Airways meanwhile stopped over-flying Iraq, while Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Turkish Airlines joined Etihad in halting services to the main Kurdish city of Arbil.
In a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), the FAA cited the "potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict" between Islamic State militants and Iraqi security forces "and their allies" as the reason for the indefinite ban.
The ban extends to "all US air carriers and commercial operators," as well as US-licensed pilots unless they are flying aircraft registered in the United States for a foreign operator.
Chiefly affected by the FAA's NOTAM are Delta and United Airlines, which both serve Gulf destinations from the United States although flight tracking websites indicated Delta had already started flying detours around Iraq.
The air lanes over northern and eastern Iraq are regularly used by international carriers for long-haul flights between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, despite unrest on the ground.
'Exercise caution':
In a NOTAM dated July 22, the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority urged all pilots to "exercise caution due to an increase of military operations from the ground to 23,500 feet (7,162 meters)."
Last week the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) told EU carriers to "exercise caution" over Iraq, saying "a potentially hazardous situation may exist" due to armed conflict.
Euro-control, the EU air traffic control service, reposted the FAA's NOTAM on its website Friday, without announcing any restrictions of its own.
Concern about flights over war zones soared after the July 17 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur above an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
All 298 passengers and crew were killed after the Boeing 777 was knocked out of the sky by a ground-to-air missile, allegedly by rebels targeting a Ukrainian military aircraft.
On the heels of Friday's FAA announcement, British Airways said it was "temporarily suspending our flights over Iraq" and using alternative routes to serve such Gulf points as Doha and Dubai.
Cites security reasons:
Turkish Airlines, one of the key foreign carriers flying to Iraq, meanwhile said it had halted flights to Arbil "for security reasons until further notice."
Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways announced its suspension of Arbil flights Thursday, while Lufthansa said Friday it and its affiliate Austrian would avoid Arbil until Monday inclusive for "security reasons."
US warplanes earlier Friday bombed positions held by Islamic State insurgents who have advanced to take swathes of northern Iraq.
Last month, the FAA prohibited US airlines from overflying eastern Ukraine in the wake of the Malaysian Airlines tragedy, expanding a ban it had previously limited to Crimea.
It also briefly barred US air carriers from Tel Aviv after a Hamas rocket fell near the Israeli city's Ben Gurion airport in the midst of the Gaza crisis.
Last week, Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways' parent International Airlines Group, pledged to keep flying over Iraq despite mounting concerns over commercial flight paths over conflict areas.
The airlines said then that it did not believe that fighting between Iraqi government forces and the Islamic State posed the same threat to commercial airliners as the situation in Ukraine.
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