Iraq sandstorm leaves 1,500 people with respiratory problems: health officials

Around 1,500 people were sent to hospitals with respiratory problems on Monday as a sandstorm hit central and southern Iraq, health officials said.

Hospitals in Muthanna province in southern Iraq received at least “700 cases of suffocation”, local health official Mazen al-Egeili told AFP. More than 250 people were hospitalised in the central Najaf province, and hundreds more in the provinces of Diwaniyah and Dhi Qar, other health officials reported.