Fires and armed conflict take toll on Kurdish flora, fauna
The mountains of Iraq's Kurdistan region are threatened by man-made and natural wildfires that are difficult to control because of a lack of firefighting resources and manpower.
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan Region of Iraq — Hawraman Sajadi nearly lost his life a year ago trying to help firefighters during a forest fire in the Bafri Miri Mountains, in Iraq’s Halabja region, bordering Iran.
When fire broke out on that hot summer day last July, Sajadi and two friends had set out on foot to take food and water to the two dozen firefighters battling the fire. They were unfamiliar with the terrain. As they walked along, one of them spotted a sand-colored anti-personnel mine. Terrified, the group then noticed several more mines around them.
“We could see the fire raging in the distance, but we were trapped in a minefield,” Sajadi said. “We walked carefully along the dirt road, trying to avoid the land mines and hoped for the best.” There are 3,440 minefields across the Iraqi Kurdistan region, remnants of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), according to the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency.
The group survived and even managed to deliver the food and water to the firefighters. By the time the fire was extinguished, hundreds if not thousands of trees had been destroyed, Sajadi estimated.
