Crop fires, a weapon of war, ruin Iraqi, Syrian harvests

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By SALAR SALIM AND SARAH EL DEEB | AP

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1559197901830163000

Thu, 2019-05-30 06:22

IRBIL, Iraq: It was looking to be a good year for farmers across parts of Syria and Iraq. The wettest in generations, it brought rich, golden fields of wheat and barley, giving farmers in this war-torn region reason to rejoice.
But good news is short-lived in this part of the world, where residents of the two countries struggle to cope with seemingly never-ending violence and turmoil amid Syria’s civil war and attacks by remnants of the Daesh group. Now, even in areas where conflict has subsided, fires have been raging in farmers’ fields, depriving them of valuable crops.