In pictures: Iraqis revel in rare snowfall

 Iraq has been hit by a succession of extreme weather events in recent years (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Although snowfall is common in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq, it is much rarer in Baghdad, where it was sighted for the first time in a decade (Sabah Arar/AFP)

A thin layer of fresh snow covered the residential neighbourhood of Karrada in Baghdad (Sabah Arar/AFP) 

It last snowed in the Iraqi capital, briefly, in 2008 - for the first time in over a century. 

'We’ve seen sleet before, but never snow. I looked at the faces of all the people, they were astonished,' 60-year-old Hassan Zahar told Reuters.

In the holy city of Karbala, excited children ran around in snowed out parks, while others took photographs of the unexpected weather conditions (Mohammed Sawaf/AFP)

Some even threw snowballs at each other, enjoying the rare opportunity while it lasted. Much of the snow had melted away by midday (Mohammed Sawaf/AFP) 

On Monday, a heavy blizzard hit the Tigris river bank of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul (Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP)

The snow covered many of the damaged buildings of Mosul’s old town, which were devastated between 2014 and 2017 when Islamic State took over the city (Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP)