Some 45,000 people are guarding the fields in northern Syria day and night in an attempt to counter the Turkish occupation forces and their mercenaries who are constantly setting the land on fire.
This year, more than 200 square kilometres of fields were destroyed by fires deliberately started. Turkey and its mercenaries are doing everything they can to destabilize the Autonomous Administration areas in northern and eastern Syria and to damage their economy.
The people of the region make every effort to protect the fields. At the moment, around 45,000 people are guarding the fields day and night. The guards consist of 15,000 members of the Social Defence Force (HPC) and 30,000 members of the Internal Security Force.
The HPC are recruited from the basic council volunteers and are directly connected to the municipalities. Due to the size of the agricultural land and the often used artillery used to burn the fields is practically impossible to control the fires. Therefore, the guards’ duties are primarily about detecting the fires and speedily reporting them to the fire department.
The Autonomous Administration had set up voluntary fire departments with hundreds of members in 2020 to extinguish any fires.
Selman Barûdo from the Agriculture Committee of the Autonomous Administration told ANHA that the fires are mainly on the borders of the areas occupied by Turkey and are provoked by the occupying forces.
