Fire sweeps Afrin forestland: White Helmets

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A huge fire has taken hold in forestland in Afrin, according to social media posts shared by the White Helmets on Monday afternoon. 

“A huge fire devours the forest trees in Qurteq Qlaq in the countryside of Afrin north of Aleppo. White Helmets teams remain till this moment working on controlling the fire and to reduce the spread of the fire,” the group said in a Facebook post, accompanied by several pictures of the blaze.

Forest fires are plaguing the whole region as a heat wave, coupled with water shortages, poor utilities, absent emergency infrastructure, and ongoing fighting, allows containable fires to spread rapidly. 

 

Photo: Syria Civil Defence - The White Helmets / social media 

The White Helmets recently arrived in Afrin alongside Syrian rebel forces evacuated from other areas of the country retaken by the regime. 

The emergency rescue group has been given copious coverage in western media for its role helping the victims of regime bombardments and suspected gas attacks. However, the regime and its military backer Russia both accuse the White Helmets of faking footage of their rescue missions for propaganda purposes. 

Afrin came under the control of Turkish forces in March when Ankara launched Operation Olive Branch to remove the Kurdish administration and push the People’s Protection Units (YPG) back from the Turkish border. 

Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization with the ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Both groups deny the charge.