A heavy sandstorm has blanketed Iraq's capital, closing the Baghdad airport and sending dozens of people to the hospital with respiratory problems. Visibility is only a few yards (meters) and most of the few people on the streets are wearing surgical masks, The Associated Press reported. 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.
