SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Sulaimani International Airport has suspended flights due to dust storm, an official said on Thursday.
Director of the airport Tahir Abdulla told Esta Media Network that flights were grounded due to poor visibility until further notice.
“We cannot resume flights until the weather condition is back to normal,” he said.
The Kurdistan Region was yet again hit by a wave of dust storm, which officials say came from Iraq’s deserts.
Iraq was hammered by a series of such storms in April, grounding flights and leaving dozens hospitalised with respiratory problems.
Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.
Experts have said these factors threaten to bring social and economic disaster in the war-scarred country, according to AFP.
