BAGHDAD: Iraqis grappled on Monday with searing heat in the capital Baghdad and parts of the country’s south, where the weather service said temperatures reached 51C in the shade.
Iraq’s 46 million people face rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts, in a country intensely impacted by the effects of climate change.
Summer temperatures often climb to 52C, especially in July and August.
On central Baghdad’s bustling streets on Monday, people sought respite from the sweltering heat in front of swirling mist fans set up near restaurants and shops.
Some pedestrians drenched their faces with cold water purchased from sidewalk vendors, while drivers had to pull over to the roadside to cool down their engines.
The national weather service said the temperature reached 51C in Baghdad and in areas to the capital’s southeast, from the central Wasit province to Dhi Qar, Missan and Basra in the south.
Another eight provinces hit 50C on Monday, with temperatures expected to drop slightly on Wednesday, according to the official Iraq News Agency.
In recent years, Iraqis rallied every summer to protest regular power cuts and water shortages that plague their daily lives.
Hundreds of people protested on Friday and Sunday near the cities of Hilla and Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, blocking roads and burning tires.
Iraq’s water resources ministry has said that “this year is one of the driest since 1933,” and that water reserve are down to only eight percent of their full capacity.
Authorities blame reduced river flows in part on upstream dams built in neighboring Iran and Turkiye, which Iraq says have dramatically shrunk the once-mighty Tigris and Euphrates whose waters have been crucial for irrigation for millennia.
Temperatures have risen significantly elsewhere in the region, with neighboring Turkiye registering on Saturday 50.5C in its southeast, a nationwide record.
Last week, a severe heatwave in Iran disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country.
Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C
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Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C
- Iraq’s 46 million people face rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts, in a country intensely impacted by the effects of climate change
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon
- “Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF soldiers in a Merkava tank,” UNIFIL said
- It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory
BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s army to “cease aggressive behavior.”
It is the latest such incident reported by the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
“Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de facto border.
“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement said.
It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said.
Last month UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots.
In October, UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the 2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce.
“We call on the IDF to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire.
It emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.
