Sinjar

Air base reopens in Kurdish northern Iraq, possibly for US use

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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SHOTLIST 1. Extreme wide shot of mountains and sky with airfield works visible in distance 2. Wide shot of trucks and bulldozers doing construction work 3. Various wide shots of construction work going on at the airfield 4. Extreme wide shot of mountains and sky STORYLINE Bulldozers and trucks have been seen at work at a disused airfield in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Locals say no work had been done at the airfield for more than a decade and speculate that the site is being made ready as a possible staging area for US forces or humanitarian flights. The airfield's landing strip is about 25-hundred metres (85-hundred feet) long - enough to accommodate transport planes or fighter jets. The US has refused to give direct answers about whether it has troops in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. The airport is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the nearest Iraqi forces and is located in an area under the control of the Iraqi Kurds, who have no aircraft. Officials of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which runs the northwestern section of the autonomous Kurdish zone in Iraq, have also denied knowledge of any US military presence. Iraq built the airfield in 1983 and used it to launch airstrikes during the war against Iran. The airfield was abandoned in 1991 after the establishment of the US-British enforced no-fly zone and the autonomous Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Iraq. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/4cdd1f5bb91cce33e79e642ff70e169a Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork