Iraq Inspects Third Syria-bound Iran Aircraft

Iraq has grounded and inspected a third Iranian aircraft bound for Syria in as many days, but found only humanitarian goods, a senior official said on Thursday.

The string of searches, the latest of which came Wednesday night, follow warnings by Baghdad last month that it would step up such inspections.

In March, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Iraq of turning a blind eye to Iranian flights which Washington says carry military equipment for the Damascus regime.

Nasser Bandar, the head of Iraq's civil aviation authority, told Agence France Presse that Iraqi aviation officials had on Wednesday evening ordered a Mahan Air cargo plane headed for Damascus to land in Baghdad.

"It complied with the request, and we searched the plane," he said. "We did not find any prohibited items."

Iran has described the inspections as "unacceptable" and has officially protested to Baghdad, describing the searches as part of "an Iranophobia project sponsored by the United States, Western countries and the Zionist (Israeli) regime and certain regional countries."

For months, Washington has accused Baghdad of looking the other way as Tehran sends military equipment through Iraqi airspace, and it has called on Iraqi authorities to make random, unannounced inspections.

Iran insists the planes carry only humanitarian goods.

Tehran has remained a steadfast ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime despite the conflict in his country that the United Nations says has killed more than 70,000 people since it erupted in March 2011.