Iraq choked in dust storms stirred by heavy winds

Shafaq News/ Many Iraqi governorates were shrouded in thick brown dust due to strong winds.

In Baghdad's capital, the dust has completely covered the area since last night.

The head of the resident doctors at Yarmouk Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Rami Shaker, revealed that "the emergency department received 600 cases of suffocation during the past hours but without any deaths."

The Director of Baghdad Rescue Department, Brig. Gen. Sabah Al-Rubaie called all patrols to be ready to transfer any case of suffocation to the hospitals.

The air traffic in Iraq was also affected by the bad weather. Baghdad, Najaf, and Al- Sulaymaniyah International Airports suspended flights due to poor visibility.

Directorate General of Meteorology and Seismology reported that many cities in the Region were choked in storms and dust, particularly in Erbil, Garmyan, and Southern Al-Sulaymaniyah.

An official security source in the Al-Anbar Governorate Police Directorate said that the security units deployed in the western and desert regions to protect them from possible terrorist attacks while the area is covered with dust.

In the Rawa, Haditha, and Ramadi in western Iraq, official sources also confirmed to our Agency that there are security plans to protect the area from terrorists who may take advantage of poor visibility to attack the security forces.

Sadiq Atiyeh, a weather expert, expected that the storm would abate in the following hours in Baghdad and gradually disappear in the other cities, noting that "the storm is now heading towards the Badia in the South, and its impact is less on the cities of the south, including Basra."

A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface.