Sand in the air

It's sandstorm season in Baghdad. The thick, gritty blanket that blew into the city Sunday hung around well into Monday, providing Iraqi militants with cover and emboldening many to target American forces. When U.S. troops struck back, it produced some of the deadliest fighting here in weeks.

This is what the view looked like at dusk on Sunday from my balcony in central Baghdad:

 

The storm grounded U.S. military aircraft for several hours and wreaked havoc at Baghdad's airport, where our colleague Hammad waited about 12 hours Monday for his flight to Jordan to depart.

Being indoors in our air-conditioned hotel wasn't protection enough. Sand seeped through the windows Sunday evening and shrouded the hallways, and as I walked around our offices I felt I was living in a dream sequence. The staff sent down for some paper masks, but the stores nearby were all out. Breathing wasn't really a problem, but the sand settled on our keyboards, cellphones, even our pillows and blankets, so that when I lay down last night I could still feel the grit beneath my head.

It was uncomfortable, no doubt. But it made me think of all the people in Baghdad living without electricity, without air-conditioning and oscillating fans for circulation, who often sleep on their rooftops to escape the heat but in a sandstorm must remain indoors. "Discomfort" probably doesn't begin to describe it.

Comments

[me]

Amazing information, thanks. I am reading that their will be electricity shortages again in Baghdad.