President of the Syrian Coalition Abdurrahman Mustafa said that the burning of the vital wheat crops in the countryside of Qamishli in northeastern Syria constituted a war crime as he called on the international community to intervene immediately to help contain these fires and ensure that they are not repeated.
“The burning of agricultural crops in the Jazeera area is a war crime,” Mustafa said Tuesday. He called on the international community to end the control of the PYD terrorist militias in the region and to provide urgent relief aid for those affected by the fires.
Moreover, Mustafa called for the implementation of the international resolutions on Syria, most notably the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN Security Council Resolution 2254 calling for a political solution that is needed to rid Syria of terrorism, Assad and the rest of the terrorist militias.
Wild fires intensified on Monday and ravaged the wheat and barley crops in and around more than 28 villages in al-Qamishli region. Strong winds caused the fires to expand to the north and east, causing tremendous losses to the local farmers.
Local activists stressed that the fires were man-made and could be attributed to natural conditions, especially as they occurred in several different regions.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Civil Defense Corps announced its willingness to help put out the fires. Civil Defense Director Raed Al-Saleh said that the organization stood ready for emergency response and to help extinguish the huge fires that threaten the food security of Syria.
Al-Saleh called on the countries concerned to give civil defense teams access to the regions ravaged by the wild fires and to benefit from the civil defense’s experience in the fight against fires.
Activists pointed out that the local population are worried about the recurrence of the fires and that they could spread to new farmlands in the region which is considered, along with the provinces of Raqqa and the eastern countryside of Aleppo, Syria’s breadbasket. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
