The secret behind the mysterious fires of crops

What is the secret behind the mysterious fires of crops in the Iraq Mosul farms?

The fire blew out in hundreds of acres and large areas of agricultural crops in Iraq, especially in the cities of central, northern and western Iraq, causing significant losses to farmers, who were waiting for a season they considered good, especially after the amount of rainfall and a promised crop of wheat and barley this year.

These fires included cities that have recently liberated from ISIS, the most important is the city of Mosul, which for nearly a month has witnessed almost daily fires of wheat and barley farms, which officials in the province consider it as a sabotage action that targets food security for citizens.

For Al Arabiya.net, the Deputy Head of Nineveh Provincial Council, Noureddine Qablan, said that since a month and after the barley harvest started in Nineveh, fires began almost daily in the past period, especially in the last ten days and in several areas, which makes the Civil Defence Directorate with its simple capabilities unable to control these contrived fires.

Contrived fire

Qablan confirmed that after inquiring and asking from many about the causes of the fire, it is shown that it is a contrived fire and the doer is still unknown and free.

Qablan added that he went to the Civil Defence Centre in Tal Afar, which supervises the ensuring of 2250000 dunums of barley and wheat crops, and listened to the problems facing the Civil Defence teams, the most important of these was obstructing the efforts of these teams by some armed groups like PKK party and YPK in the areas of Sinjar mountain.

Magnifying lenses for fires

He added that also magnifying lenses that reflect solar radiation, had been discovered, which in turn can cause fires. Confirming that these things are contrived and affect food security in the province of Nineveh and the entire Iraqi state.

Qablan affirmed that these crops are a wealth for all Iraqi, and The Prime Minister should give special attention to the issue because dealing with these fires is greater than the capabilities of the Civil Defence and the Iraqi Army, but we ask the help from neighbouring countries to bring aircraft that could contribute to extinguishing these fires.

Fire is contrived and must be seriously thought of by the central government in Baghdad. As the local Nineveh government, we are doing what we can to solve this issue, but as you know that there are more than four million acres planted in the province of Nineveh, and everyone called it a bread basket of Iraq, one of the largest cultivated areas in the entire Iraqi state.

Qablan confirmed that the issue of fires has many repercussions; the most important is that it threatens the food security of the city and Iraq. A lot of people depend on the harvest of these crops in providing liquidity of cash and returning of some displaced people from the camps and other cities to cultivate their lands and create job opportunities. Extinguishing the fires and protecting the crops will contribute significantly to ensuring citizens' sense of state power that protects its citizens.

The head of the Investment Committee in the province of Nineveh, Mohammed al-Bayati, said that the fires of crops directly affect the food of the people, Which are malicious plans and economic battle to impoverish the people of Nineveh, and they have recently come out from the most serious crisis known in history, which was the control of terrorist groups, and became captives of ISIS which was defeated by Iraqi. Al-Bayati added that the point of farm fires is to threat the community peace and food security of Nineveh residents, and destroy the social relations between the communities of Nineveh in general.

The Chairman of the Committee of Agriculture in Nineveh, Owaid Al Juheshi, asked the three administrations for an urgent meeting to take rapid action to reduce the fires that affected large areas of agricultural land in the entire province of Nineveh. Despite the efforts of the local government, the vastness of the areas and the lack of a fire extinguishing system mean an inability to prevent fire control.

Owaid explained in a statement that these fires affected several towns of the district of the province, that indicates to having unknowns behind those contrived fires. He also emphasised the need to establish a select committee to count the damage of farmers, asking The Ministry of Agriculture to compensate them in a way that enables them to continue farming.

The Chairman of the Committee of Agriculture asked the residents to stand by each other to prevent fires and cooperate with security forces and local authorities.

What is the secret behind the mysterious fires of crops in the Iraq Mosul farms?