qayyarah burning oil fields

Qayyarah, or Qayara, is an Iraqi town located in the southern Nineveh Governorate on the west bank of the Tigris River and about 60 km (35 miles) south of Mosul. It is located in the Mosul District, and it is the seat of the Qayyarah subdistrict. The town is situated near the Qayyarah oil field and has an oil refinery on its south-western outskirts.

At the beginning of the combat operation for the city of Mosul in October 2016, the Islamic State burned these wells to make it more difficult for the coalition to fly over. It took several months to put out the fires, and it was a huge environmental and economic disaster.

January 2017