Fire destroys 20 hectares of woodland near Al-Sulaymaniyah

Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

Fire consumed roughly 200 dunams (20 hectares) of woodland in the Goizha heights north of Al-Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, before civil defense teams and forest police brought it under control Wednesday.

The burned area covers pine and old-growth trees in one of the region's most visited natural and tourist areas, particularly in summer, according to preliminary information from field sources.

Crews reached the slopes within minutes of an alert at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday and worked more than two hours before containing the fire, said Aram Ali, spokesperson for the Civil Defense Directorate in Al-Sulaymaniyah. No casualties were recorded, and damage was confined to trees and vegetation.

Full control came in the pre-dawn hours through a joint effort by forest police units, civil defense crews, and volunteers from surrounding communities, said Brigadier General Hoshyar Ahmed, director of the Al-Sulaymaniyah Forest Police Directorate.

The cause remains undetermined. Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), attributed the blaze to projectiles fired from Iran. The Forest Police Directorate placed the cause among unknown factors, and neither Iraqi federal authorities nor security bodies in the Kurdistan Region have confirmed it.

No official damage figure will be issued until field inspection concludes, according to the directorate.