Airports of Baghdad and Najaf on Wednesday, suspended flights after a heavy dust storm hit central Iraq and impaired visibility.
The Baghdad International Airport said in a statement that the flights were being suspended because of bad weather and visibility of fewer than 500 meters.’’
He added that flights would resume if weather conditions improved.
The Najaf airport also cancelled flights because of the dust storm, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
The Iraqi Meteorological Organisation and Seismology said in a statement that the dust storm was expected to continue on Thursday, but weather conditions would improve in the following days.
Dust storms had swept Iraq frequently in recent months.
Experts believed they were caused by a lack of rain last winter, drought, and the shortage of vegetation cover.
(Xinhua/NAN)