Fear of missile attacks grounds airlines' plans for Baghdad flights

Until airport area is fully secure, regular travel is too risky

Baghdad -- "Walk straight back to duty free," a U.S. soldier directed chirpily at Baghdad International Airport.

The duty-free shop, with its Cuban cigars and fine vodka, is the only vaguely normal section of the capital's vast airport -- twice the size of Los Angeles International -- where scores of check-in desks stand deserted, and the electronic destination board, listing flights to Tokyo, Paris and Frankfurt, last operated in 1990.

Months ago, coalition officials in Iraq boasted that commercial airliners were competing to fly into Baghdad International. But that scramble has stalled amid mounting violence.

Now, after a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter carrying soldiers on their way to the airport was downed by a heat seeking missile near Fallujah, fears have grown among U.S. officials, airline executives and insurance companies that a shoulder-fired missile could strike a commercial jet in midair. snip

Coalition officials say at least two missiles were fired at various aircraft around Baghdad airport last week alone -- one at a DHL air-freight plane, another at a plane chartered by a Russian company. In the past six months, there have been 12 attacks on aircraft near the airport.

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