Syria battles forest fires in Latakia countryside

ISTANBUL

Syria’s civil defense and firefighting teams continued efforts on Saturday to extinguish forest fires that erupted a day earlier in the Turkmen mountain area in Latakia province, in the country’s northwest.

The blaze began Friday in the village of Bashoura and spread rapidly due to strong winds, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). Civil defense units from the Emergency and Disaster Management Ministry, along with teams from the Agriculture Ministry, have been deployed to contain the fire.

Mahmoud Al-Shariqi, commander of the Civil Defense team in Latakia, said operations have been hampered by difficult terrain, fast-moving winds, and the presence of unexploded ordnance left over from the war in nearby areas – hazards that require extreme caution from responders.

Despite the challenges, Al-Shariqi said teams are working at full capacity and expressed hope that progress will be made in the coming hours by extinguishing active flames, cooling hotspots, and preventing the fire from spreading further.

Western Syria has faced repeated forest and agricultural fires this summer, particularly in Latakia, where high temperatures, dry conditions, and dense woodlands have contributed to severe outbreaks.

In July, wildfires in the Latakia mountains burned for 12 days, destroying more than 16,000 hectares (39,537 acres) of woodland, including 2,200 hectares of farmland, and affecting 45 villages and roughly 1,200 families.