Tasluja Cement Factory set in operation

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties controlling Iraqi Kurdistan since the Gulf War ended in 1991, announced that it was putting the Tasluja Cement Factory, in Sulaymaniya, northern Iraq into action.

The Cement Factory is due to produce about 100,000 tons of cement a year. "That will help in reconstructing the villages and roads destroyed in the village in 1980s," the minister of industry in the regional Kurdish government said.

The factory was twice set in operation during the seven years following the Gulf War.

A safe haven was established in the area by the allied forces after the war to keep Kurdish inhabitants away from expected attacks by Iraqi forces.