Iraq has announced first six cases of A/H1N1 virus in the country's northern Kurdish region, the regional minister of health said on Wednesday.

"After medical tests for the six people, including a team of female athletes returning from the United States and an Iraqi Arab citizen, at a hospital in the city of Sulaimaniyah, they are confirmed with the A/H1N1 flu," Dr. Zriyad Othman, health minister of Kurdish regional government, said in a statement.

Othman said that all the affected people have been treated and are in good condition.

Those affected people are part of a basketball team that had returned from Chicago, and have been kept in hospital since June 21.

On their way back from Chicago the team passed through Amman where one member was held because tests found she had the A/H1N1 virus.

The WHO declared A/H1N1 flu pandemic on June 11.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2009)