Middle East News: Sandstorm wreaks havoc in Mideast – Gulf Digital News

Middle East News: Sandstorm wreaks havoc in Mideast – Gulf Digital News

BAGHDAD: Heavy dust storms have blanketed much of the region killing eight people, reducing visibility and halting flights as well as hitting ports.

In Baghdad and southern Iraqi cities, a red haze of dust and sand reduced visibility to just a few hundred feet, forcing authorities to close some state schools and offices and halted flights at Baghdad International Airport.

Seven people died after a heavy dust storm hit Syria’s eastern Deir Al Zor province, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war

monitor reported.

Kuwait Ports Authority suspended all maritime operations at its three ports due to bad weather, the state news agency Kuna reported. Flights were also temporarily suspended at Kuwait International Airport.

Some parts of Saudi Arabia have also been hit by sandstorm.

A heavy sandstorm in Iraq, the latest of what Iraqis say is an unprecedented number to hit the country in recent weeks, closed some state schools and offices and halted flights at Baghdad International Airport yesterday.

Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to the climate crisis, according to the United Nations.

Drought and extreme temperatures are drying up farmland and making large parts of Iraq barely habitable during the summer months. The country posted record temperatures of at