Turkish-backed mercenaries have set fire to the and cultivated wheat and olive fields in the villages of Sikariyah and Kiradiyah in rural al-Bab Friday noon.

The fire, started from three sides, quickly spread 3 km towards four other villages; Til Torin, Jabla, Hamra and Buwayhija. According to reports, 30 hectares of grain and 2,500 olive trees burned to ashes as a result, as well as tractors belonging to the local people.

The fire could be taken under control thanks to the fire brigades deployed by Manbij Civil Administration, to whom villagers lent a helping hand.

The targeted arson is part of Turkey's war against the autonomous regions in northern and eastern Syria and serves the occupying forces as a method of systematic expulsion policy and ethnic cleansing. The invasion of Afrin in 2018 laid the foundation for systematically destroying the economic foundations of the population. This tactic was originally one of the methods used by the terrorist militia ISIS, which was adopted by Turkey on a one-to-one basis.

In 2019, a commission of inquiry of the autonomous administration estimated the damage caused by the destruction of cultivated areas through arson at the equivalent of 33 million euros. By the first half of the year alone, 420 square kilometres of fields with crops was destroyed by the Turkish army and its Islamist allies. This year, more than 200 square kilometres of fields have been turned to ashes by arson. Turkey and its militias are doing everything they can to destabilise the self-governing areas in northern and eastern Syria and damage the economy.

The people in the northeast Syrian autonomous region are making every effort to protect their livelihood. At the moment about 45,000 people guard the fields day and night. The volunteers consist of 15,000 members of the Social Defence Forces (Hêzên Parastina Civakî, HPC) and their autonomously organized women's structures HPC-Jin. They are part of the "Democratic Nation" project and are directly attached to the local defence commissions. 30,000 members of the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) also protect the cultivated areas of northern and eastern Syria.

According to the ANF information, almost forty agricultural areas were burned in May in the regions of Girê Spî, al-Bab, Ain Isa, Til Temir, Shehba, Shera, Sherawa and Kobanê. The fires affected dozens of villages and thousands of people. The attacks target the economy of the region and left at least 100,000 decares of grain field and 360 decares of olive grove burned to ashes.