The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised its citizens against all travel to Iraq, except to the provinces of Dahuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Kurdish areas.

In a statement issued last week on May 19, the ministry announced that citizens should not travel to these areas unless strictly necessary, reports SchengenVisaInfo.com.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs carries out permanent evaluations of travel advice. The security situation in Iraq, in general, is demanding, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) is a threat in some provinces,” read the statement.

According to the ministry, Norwegian citizens already in Iraq are encouraged to fully assess their safety.

In addition, the ministry recommended all Norwegian citizens planning a trip to download the Travel Ready app, in which citizens will find up-to-date information on around 200 countries.

On May 11, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry also urged its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Sri Lanka, given recent civil unrest and economic hardship.

In a statement issued the same day, the ministry stressed that the embassy in Colombo had limited possibilities to help Norwegians in case of emergency. Therefore, the ministry encouraged Norwegians to monitor developments and fully assess their safety should they urgently need to travel to Sri Lanka.

Previously, Norway asked its citizens to refrain from traveling to Shanghai on trips that are also not absolutely mandatory or necessary.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that anti-travel advice for Shanghai has been introduced due to the closure and COVID-19 related restrictions that were introduced on April 1 in this city.

In this regard, the ministry pointed out that as long as the lockdown continues in Shanghai, it will be difficult to travel inside and outside its territory.

Regarding the advice against travel to Iraq, the same is mainly based on the ongoing conflicts in the country which have escalated in recent weeks.

Since 2014, the Iraqi government, backed by peshmerga forces, various militias and US-led international coalition forces, has been engaged in armed conflict against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This is an international armed conflict on Iraqi territory involving Turkish airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) without the consent of the Iraqi government.

Meanwhile, in 2017, after its territorial loss in Iraq, ISIL moved from semi-conventional combat to guerrilla warfare. According to Iraqi experts Michael Knights and Alex Almeida, after ISIL attacks fell in 2018, they continued to fall in early 2019. ISIL attacks began to increase in the second half of 2019 and the first quarter 2020.