WORLD> Middle East
Heavy sandstorm blankets Baghdad
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-28 19:26

BAGHDAD: A heavy sandstorm has blanketed Iraq's capital, closing the Baghdad airport and sending dozens of people to the hospital with respiratory problems.

Heavy sandstorm blankets Baghdad
Iraqi policemen stand near a crane lifting anti-blast walls during a sandstorm in Baghdad's Amil district June 28, 2009. [Agencies] 

Visibility is only a few yards (meters) and most of the few people on the streets are wearing surgical masks. Doctors at the city's hospitals said on Sunday that people were coming in complaining about shortness of breath and other problems.

Sandstorms are a regular occurrence in Baghdad although it is shielded from the desert by a thin strip of arable land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

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