More than half a million dunams of land have caught fire in Iraq
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Fires targeting wheat and barley fields have continued across northern Iraq including the disputed areas, with locals incurring great loses amid uncertainty over who might be responsible for the fires.
The head of the news department at the Iraqi Civil Defense Department, Nowas al-Dulemi, told Rudaw on Thursday that from May 5 to June 4 there have been 236 fire incidents across the country encompassing a total area of 543,567 dunams (1,359 square-kilometers) — 20,730 dunams of that total has been lost, while 522,837 dunams have been “saved.”
In Iraq, 1 dunam equals 2,500 square-meters.
In Qoche and six other villages near Sargaran town of in northwestern Kirkuk, about 5,000 dunams of have burned in recent days. A farmer estimated local losses to stand at $1 million.
"The fire started from Qoche. Darband caught fire. Sarbashakh has burnt. Palkana has caught it too. Gabaraka also. Gabaraka has been damaged the most," Karzan Khurshid, a farmer in the area, told Rudaw of the villages near the Erbil-Kirkuk provincial border on Thursday.
A pin marks the location of Sargaran in Iraq. Image: Google maps
Like others in the disputed areas, the farmer blamed Arabs for the arsons. Since October 16, 2017, when Peshmerga forces retreated from the disputed territories due to an Iraqi offensive, there have been claims by Kurds and some Turkmen of renewed Arabization policies, particularly in the Kirkuk area.
Arab settlers, who were compensated within the framework of the establishment of the “new Iraq” and sent back to their areas elsewhere in the country after 2003 have returned; many are currently in a legal battle with the Kurdish farmers.
"We have nothing of this year's produce left," said the Khurshid, while holding burnt, black stalks of wheat.
Other Kurdish farmers fear crops might be next, so they have started harvesting while complaining that neither Baghdad nor Erbil have provided assistance.
"No one has come to our aid although we have asked for it many times because this area lies between the control areas of the Iraqi and the Kurdistan Regional Government, between Peshmerga and the Iraqi forces," Jegir Hadi, another local farmer, told Rudaw.
A reported 600 dunams of wheat cropland have burnt in the district of Khanaqin in northern Diyala province. The disputed town of Makhmour has also had at least 200 dunams of cropland torched.
The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed some of the fires across Iraq via its Telegram channels — usually after the fact.
There is, however, uncertainty over who or what is responsible for many of the fires. Iraqi Prime Minister has downplayed ISIS’s role in many of the fires, claiming that electric faults, the hot season and disputed between farmers are mostly to blame.
Kurdish villagers have also blamed on Shiite paramilitaries and militias, claiming that it is a systematic effort to push Kurds out of the disputed territories. The Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMFs), along with other Iraqi Security Forces like the Federal Police and Army hold the security portfolio in the disputed areas.
There also have been fires in the village of Kahriz, to the northwest of Nineveh’s Mosul city in Zummar district. Nasih, a local reporter, claimed that "vast areas" of cropland caught fire earlier on Thursday.
"Following the intervention of the army, police, oil police and a large number of locals of the area, the fire that had hit agricultural land in the Kahriz village has been extinguished," Nasih later reported in a separate social media post.
According to his information, the fire started near a cement block factory for the village and went all the way to the nearby Tal Khidhir village. Most of the damaged crops were barley, he added, citing local sources.
Near an electricity station in Pir Dawud south of Erbil, dry brush caught fire. Pir Dawud electricity station has a capacity to produce 1,500 megawatts of electricity, roughly one-third of the Kurdistan Region’s supply.
The fire was later controlled, but not before leading to power outages in 40 percent of Erbil. Locals, who are financially able, depend on private generators as temperatures soar into the mid-40s Celsius to keep themselves and food cool.
Sheikh Kafi, an officer in the operations room of Erbil's Civil Defense Department, told Rudaw that they didn't know what caused the "big fire.” They dispatched 13 teams.
Major Sarkawt, an officer in Erbil's Civil Defense Department, told Rudaw that they release instructions every year before the hot season of summer for people to avoid setting dry brush on fire and to be careful when harvesting their crops.
General Kadhim Salman, the director general of Iraq’s Civil Defense Department said in a press conference on Sunday that Iraqis planted 13 million dunams of crops this year due to the high amount of rain.
“Let me point out to you attendees that throughout the past years during the harvesting season would witness these fires,” said Salman, claiming that the number of fires had receded in the past years due to the drought during the planting season.
“Now these fires have appeared again as the area of cropland became vast,” added Salman, claiming the topic has been “blown out of proportion.”
Some of the fires are due to “flying sparks” from combine harvesters and agricultural machinery. Others are because of electrical wires falling into the crops or electric generators catching fire. There have only been 15 “deliberate incidents,” Salman claimed.
He acknowledged some of the deliberate incidents include land disputes. “Here I refer to Kirkuk,” added Salman, claiming such motives extended to Saladin and Diyala too.