Syrian authorities evacuate citizens amid major forest fires

Syrian rescuers evacuated residential areas in Latakia province because of major forest fires, authorities said on Friday.

Fires have spreading across large parts of Syria, particularly on the coast, for several days, with firefighters struggling to control them due to strong winds and a drought.

Abdulkafi Kayyal, director of the Directorate of Disasters and Emergencies in Latakia province, told the state news agency SANA that fires in the Qastal Maaf area had moved close to several villages, prompting the evacuations.

Syria's civil defence warned residents of "the spread of rising smoke emissions to the northern section of the coastal mountains, the city of Hama, its countryside, and southern Idlib areas."

"Our teams recorded losses in the orchards due to the widespread spread of the forest fire in several areas of the Latakia countryside," the civil defence added, calling on citizens to report anyone they suspect of starting fires.

Syrian minister of emergency situations and disasters Raed al-Saleh said on X that he was following events and "we will exert our utmost efforts to combat these fires".

With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has been battered by heatwaves, low rainfall and major forest fires.

In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation told AFP that Syria had "not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years", noting that an unprecedented drought was on course to push more than 16 million people into food insecurity.

The country is also reeling from more than a decade of civil war leading up to the end of the iron-fisted rule of Bashar al-Assad in December.

Kayyal said the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance was hindering the work of rescuers, along with strong winds spreading the fires.