Iraq Sends Firefighters and Water Tankers to Battle Syria Forest Fires

The National

A drone image shows massive fires near the town of Qastal Maaf in the Syrian coastal governorate of

Iraq is sending firefighters, water tankers and other equipment to help battle forest blazes in coastal Syria, as a multinational effort to extinguish the flames enters a ninth day.

Already crews from Türkiye, Jordan and Lebanon are engaged in firefighting work across the governorate of Latakia, where the flames have forced villagers to evacuate their homes.

A spokesperson for Iraq's Civil Defence Directorate said on Thursday that the teams “are currently in the preparation phase and they will head to Syria in the coming hours”.

“We are working on completing the logistical issues,” Iraq's state-run news agency reported him as saying.

The fires had formed a “towering, deep valley” in areas near the town of Qastal Maaf, said Raed al-Saleh, Syria's Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management. The location is considered one of the most rugged and difficult points for the firefighting crews to reach, he added.


Saleh thanked Iraq for sending ground firefighting teams, Syrian state news agency Sana reported. On Wednesday, he had said Syria also appealed to the EU for help.


The wildfires have been rampaging across Latakia and Tartus governorates, including around the city of Baniyas in Tartus. Villagers have been evacuated from their homes in Latakia's Ras Al Basit district. Strong winds, rugged terrain and unexploded ordnance have been hindering firefighting efforts, authorities say.

Syria's coastal region contains most of its green space, covering about 4,000 square kilometres − 2 per cent of the country's land mass − according to data recorded in 2010, shortly before the country's civil war broke out.

But Syria's forests have been affected by decades of illegal logging along with unlicensed building and farming, particularly during the 13-year war.

The country was once a regional breadbasket but is now undergoing one of its worst droughts in decades. In the late 2000s, Syria became a wheat importer due to a lack of rain and the illegal use of wells, which affected underground reservoirs.

Article was originally published by The National.



PUKMEDIA