Baghdad: Snow fell on Baghdad on Friday for the first time in memory, and delighted residents declared it an omen of peace.

On Friday morning, as muezzins were calling the faithful to prayer, the people here awoke to something certifiably new.

For the first time in memory, snow fell on Baghdad.

Although the white flakes quickly dissolved into gray puddles, they brought an emotion rarely expressed in this desert capital snarled by army checkpoints, divided by concrete walls and ravaged by sectarian killings - delight.

"For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammad Abdul Hussain, a 63-year-old retiree from the New Baghdad area.