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 Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon are engaged in firefighting work across the governorate of Latakia, where the flames have forced villagers to evacuate their homes.
A spokesman 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.
Mr Al 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.
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A wildfire sweeps through a forest area in Latakia, Syria. All photos: Ahmad Fallaha for The National -
Fires have been burning across parts of the country for days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought -
Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed Al Saleh tours the village of Qastal Maaf in the Latakia countryside, which has been hit by the wildfires -
People affected by the fires in Latakia receive aid parcels from charities -
Hussein Sbeih and his aunt at their family farm, which was devastated by the wildfires in Latakia -
Mohammed Adham Awna is one of the farmers affected by the fires, having lost his olive and apple trees -
A Syrian Civil Defence fire engine damaged during firefighting operations near Qastal Maaf -
A drone image shows a wildfire in Qastal Maaf
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.
