The massive wildfires ravaging the country’s western Latakia province have been brought under control after burning for 10 days, Syria's civil defence agency has announced.
The fires, which erupted during a severe regional heatwave, destroyed approximately 100 square kilometres of forest and farmland, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"With the spread of the fires halted and the fire hotspots brought under control on all fronts," the civil defence said in a Facebook statement on Sunday, ground crews are now cooling scorched areas and monitoring for possible reignitions.
Regional alliance to battle the blaze
Firefighters from Syria, along with emergency teams from Türkiye, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, and Iraq, battled high temperatures, strong winds, mountainous terrain, and even the threat of unexploded war remnants to stop the flames.
Syrian Minister for Emergencies and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh called the containment "the most important step toward halting the wildfires," while warning that wind activity still posed a risk of renewed outbreaks.
No casualties have been reported, though multiple towns in the Latakia region were evacuated as a precaution.
Firebreaks are now being cleared within forested areas to reduce the risk of further spread.
Officials have warned that the country’s firefighting capacity is critically weakened, just as the climate crisis intensifies the threat of extreme weather events.
