Iraqi authorities tested a Baghdad-wide siren system yesterday designed to alert residents to foreign attacks, natural disasters and fires, the first such system since Saddam Hussain’s 2003 ouster. 

Hundreds of sirens are due to be rolled out across the country in the coming months and years, but at 11am yesterday, 126 loud hailer sirens rang out across the violence-wracked capital for one minute.
 
“The system has four tones to warn of natural disasters, fires, pollution and war,” Major General Latif Karim Mizhir, Head of Baghdad’s Emergency Response Unit, told AFP. A fifth tone, which was used in the test, signals all-clear.

 

Source: AFP; Gulf Times