According to an ANHA report based on local sources, the occupying Turkish state forces and allied gangs set fire to the lands and fields in the villages of Edamo, Elbîskê and Bilîlko in the Rajo district of Afrin on 23 July.

The report says that the citizens tried to extinguish the fire with their own means but the fire could not be brought under control and spread rapidly towards Xililko village in Bilbilê district.

It was stated that nearly 25 thousand olive, cherry, walnut and pine trees have been burnt so far.

The local people reported that they asked for help from civilian organisations such as ‘Komên Spî’ and ‘Defence of Syrian Civilians’ in order to bring the fire under control, but the organisations did not intervene on the grounds that ‘they could not control the fire’.

The locals noted that as the fire spread, they heard the sounds of mines exploding in the fields, so they could not control the fire as they could not enter the affected area. The locals said they believed that the fire was started deliberately.

According to the Syria-Afrin Human Rights Organisation, 391 thousand trees were burnt in Afrin in the last six years of the Turkish occupation.