BAGHDAD, May 20, 2011 (AFP) - Iraqi authorities tested a Baghdad-wide siren system on Friday designed to alert residents to war, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and fires, the first such system since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster.
Hundreds of siren alarms are due to be rolled out across the country in the coming months and years, but at 11:00 am (0800 GMT) on Friday, 126 loud hailer sirens rang out across the violence-wracked capital in a test that authorities alerted Baghdad citizens to by mobile phone message a day earlier.
"The system has four tones to warn of natural disasters, fires, pollution and war," said Major General Latif Karim Mizhir, the head of Baghdad's emergency response unit.
"It will also help us connect with emergency response centres in all of Iraq's regions, and to address the people."
A total of 300 sirens have so far been installed -- 126 in Baghdad and the rest in provincial cities -- with a further 700 set to be put in place across the country.
Saddam's regime had its own siren system in the major cities that was used frequently during the 1980-88 war with Iran and the 1991 Gulf War, but no such system has been used since he was overthrown by US-led forces.
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Copyright AFP 2011.
