Syrian Kurds alarmed as fire ravages wheat near oil installations
A man battles a blaze in an agricultural field in the town of Al-Qahtaniya, in Hasaka province in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) on June 10, 2019. Photo: AFP
QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan,— A Kurdish official in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northeast Syria called for help from the US-backed coalition Monday as fires ravaged through vital wheat fields in the latest of such blazes nationwide.
Syria’s Kurds have led the fight against the Islamic State group in the north and east of the country, backed by a US-led military coalition. The Islamic State “caliphate” was declared defeated by Syrian Kurdish-led forces on March 23, following a nearly five-year-long offensive against the group.
As the eight-year civil war winds down, they are seeking to retain a degree of autonomy from the Damascus regime in a large cereal and oil-rich region their control in the mainly Kurdish northeast of the country.
“Fires today engulfed hundreds of hectares of wheat in Tirbespi and the fires are still raging,” the head of the Kurdish agriculture authority Salman Bardo said, referring to the town named Al-Qahtaniya in Arabic.
“It’s a huge danger for the region because the fire is close to oil wells and stations,” he warned.
An AFP correspondent saw black smoke billow over golden fields scorched black, as men tried to put out flames with shovels just metres (yards) away from oil installations.
One man in a bulldozer was desperately trying to plough the earth to stop the fire from spreading.
“We ask the international coalition to intervene to extinguish the fires using special fire planes” we don’t have, Bardo said.
Abderrizq al-Mahmud, a 29-year-old wheat grower, said his family’s land had been destroyed.
“Forty-five hectares have gone up in flames, and I only have eight hectares left” after the fire roared in on Sunday, he said.
After years of drought and then civil war, Syria is expecting a bumper crop of wheat this year — a large part of it in the northeast.
Smoke rises from a wheat field in Hasaka, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), June 10, 2019. Photo: ANHA
Fires have erupted in various parts of Syria in recent weeks, with all sides blaming each other for starting them.
In the Kurdish-run breadbasket province of Hasaka, of which Al-Qahtaniya is part, IS has claimed several arson attacks on wheat fields.
But farmers have also blamed revenge attacks, low-quality fuel causing sparks, and even carelessness.
Both the Damascus government and the Kurdish authorities are competing to buy up the wheat produced this year in northeast Syria.
Analysts say wheat will be key to ensuring affordable bread and keeping the peace in various parts of Syria in the coming period.
The civil war has killed more than 370,000 people, made millions homeless, and devastated the country’s economy since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
U.S. has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ considered the most effective fighting force against IS. The YPG, which make up the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
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