Islamic State leaves burned oil fields, disease in its wake

摘要

The Islamic State group has left a ghastly environmental footprint on Iraq. The group detonated oil wells as a defense mechanism, leading to chronic lung problems for children and elderly people. For nine months, the city of Qayyarah and the villages around it were covered in a cloud of thick, sooty smoke. In all, militants burned or spilled up to 2 million barrels of oil between June 2016 and March 2017, according to a U.N. report, killing cattle and leaving fields unusable. They also burned a plant that reportedly contained one of the world's biggest sulfur stockpiles in an effort to hold off Iraqi military forces.