World Bulletin / News Desk

 The Baghdad-Kirkuk highway was reopened Monday after being closed for nearly three months due to ISIL attacks.

“From now on, everybody can use the highway to travel to Baghdad,” Kirkuk Governor Necmettin Kerim told a press conference Monday.

The highway, which connects the cities of Dohuk, Erbil and Kirkuk with the Iraqi capital, had been closed off to traffic since March 2.

“The Baghdad-Kirkuk highway was opened to traffic at four this morning at the order of the central government,” Shalal Abdul, Kurdish mayor of Tuz Khurmatu in Saladin province told Anadolu Agency. “However, for the moment, it is only open to personal vehicles, taxis and buses. It is not yet open to trucks or similar vehicles used to transport goods.”

The Hashid Al-Shaabi militia is currently responsible for ensuring security on the highway, he added.

Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June 2014 when ISIL stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared a self-styled caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.