[citation needed] Occasional international charter flights carrying medicine, aid workers, and government officials were allowed into Baghdad.

On 6 December 2006, a 107mm rocket attack landed 30 yards (27.5 meters) from a parked C-5A aircraft, puncturing it with scores of shrapnel holes.

[8] On 1 May 2023, the Iraqi government under Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani approved plans to enhance services with the intention of launching an expansion project in the development of Baghdad Airport in the second half of 2023.

It was named in memory of Combat Controller Staff Sergeant Scott Sather, the first enlisted airman to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sather was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for his leadership of a 24th Special Tactics Squadron reconnaissance task force during the initial stages of the 2003 U.S.

[10] On 18 May 2010, plans were unveiled for an expansion of Baghdad International Airport, doubling its capacity to 15 million passengers per year.

The expansion, to be funded by foreign investors, was to include construction of three new terminals and refurbishment of the existing three, each of which would accommodate 2.5 million passengers annually.