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Street scene in Baghdad
Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP
Iraq suffers from severe sandstorms.
A thick layer of desert dust settled on cars, roads and houses - and turned the sky bright orange.
But it doesn't stop at the eye-catcher: the dust affected air traffic and caused breathing difficulties for dozens of people.
Flights were suspended both at the airport in the capital Baghdad and in Najaf in the south due to poor visibility, the state news agency INA reported on Sunday.
“Flights are suspended until visibility improves,” INA quoted from Najaf airport circles as saying.
The visibility was given as less than 500 meters, such as the British "Guardian" reported.
Danger for dusty days increases
Photos and videos made the rounds on the Internet, which are said to show a large cloud of sand west of Baghdad.
Five provinces in the country were affected by the storm, according to the INA agency, which released images of a capital shrouded in a thick, orange-red haze.
At least 50 patients with breathing difficulties and a risk of suffocation were reported in hospitals in Karbala in the south, according to the news site Alsumaria News.
Sandstorms are not uncommon in Iraq.
Strong north-west winds blow over the Tigris and Euphrates river floodplains in the desert region, especially in summer.
The dust particles significantly worsen the air quality.
Due to drought, desertification and decreasing rainfall, such phenomena could occur more frequently, according to the Guardian Amer al-Jabri from the Iraqi weather agency.
In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq's water resources could decline by 20 percent by 2050 due to climate change.
Sand and dust from the desert sometimes reach Europe.
It was only in March that Sahara dust had bathed parts of Germany in a bright yellow.
apr/dpa
