Opposition groups burn fields in Tel Tamr and Tel Abyad

Tel Tamr – North-Press Agency

Delsoz Youssef

On Friday, Turkish-backed opposition groups set fire to agricultural fields in the countryside of the town of Tel Tamr, 40 km north of the city of Hasakah, as well as crops west of Hasakah.

A North-Press reporter stated that Turkish-backed opposition groups set fire to farmers' fields in the villages of al-Rihaniyah and al-Faysaliyah, which are under the control of the groups, while smoke is still rising above the area.

In the meantime, for unknown reasons, fire broke out in several agricultural fields in the area of Kizwan Mountain in the western countryside of the city of Hasakah, and emergency and response teams of the municipality of Tel Tamr quickly put it out.

Well-informed sources who requested not to be named stated to North Press that on Friday morning, Turkish-backed groups set fire to the fields of the villages of Sarzory and Faris in the countryside of Tel Abyad (Gre-Spi) without information reported about the damages.

Mahmoud Da'ar, the official of the fire brigade in Tel Tamr, told North-Press that during the past two days, three fires broke out in fields located on the front lines between Syrian government forces and the opposition groups in the Tel Tamr countryside.

"We have not been able to reach the fires to put them out because armed opposition groups indiscriminately open fire on our vehicles," he added.  

In the past year season, the fires devoured large areas of wheat and barley fields in northeastern Syria, estimated at more than 54,000 hectares. Officials of the Autonomous Administration believed that it would be "fabricated", where the administration undertook to compensate the farmers for their losses then.