“It’s worth wandering around the deserted streets,’’ the blog says, “and you should not miss out on its Kurdish Textile Museum, a fantastic witness to Kurdish culture and tradition.”
It is possible to fly into Kurdistan from several cities in the Middle East and Europe. For example, direct flights from Munich to Sulaimaniyah, one of the Kurdish region’s biggest cities, are available from Dokan Air, which calls itself a young but “dedicated” airline and serves the Dokan Resort area with its vistas of lakes and mountains.
Bahaudden, of the tourism ministry, said fewer than 100 Americans joined official tours here this year, most of them young people.
That is still more than in the rest of Iraq, which in March held its first officially sanctioned tour for Westerners since 2003. Four men and four women from Britain, the US and Canada took part.
The US State Department has a travel advisory out for all of Iraq and warns against nonessential trips.
“While the security environment has shown significant improvement over the past year, Iraq remains dangerous and unpredictable,” it notes, adding that security in the Kurdish regions has improved but “violence persists and conditions could deteriorate quickly.”
Kurdish immigration officials generally allow Americans to enter with a visa granted at the airports in major cities such as Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. The visas are good only in Kurdistan, and officials urge all visitors to register with the nearest US Embassy or consulate.
The three detained Americans came into the Kurdish area from Turkey on July 28, and the next day went to Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, spending a night there before moving on to Sulaimaniyah by bus. On July 30, they rented a cabin at Iraq-Iran border resort of Ahmed Awaa, according to a local security official.
From there on, accounts are sketchy.
Camping equipment and two backpacks apparently belonging to the Americans were found in the area and it seemed they were hiking above a waterfall when they accidentally crossed the border, a Kurdish security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
Shortly before their capture, the three contacted a fourth member of their group — Shon Meckfessel, a PhD student in linguistics — to say they had entered Iran by mistake and were surrounded by troops, the official said. Meckfessel stayed behind in Sulaimaniyah that day because he had a cold.
On the Net: backpackiraq.blogspot.com
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