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Three firemen dead as fires renew at southern Mosul oil field

 Three firemen dead as fires renew at southern Mosul oil field

A burning oil well in Qayyarah. File Photo

A burning oil well in Qayyarah. File Photo
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Three firemen died late Saturday when huge fires erupted again at an oilfield in Mosul which the government has been struggling to put it since last August.

Hussein Hajem, mayor of Mosul’s town of Qayyara, said fires broke out again in the oilfields due to a fracture in one of the pipes, which gave out toxic gases that caused the blaze.

He said three firemen died trying to put out the fires, adding that backup fire brigades failed to extinguish the blaze.

Islamic State militants set fire to Qayyara’s oilfields when they pulled out from the region in August 2016. The Iraqi government has been occasionally announcing putting out fires at each field.

The government said last month that five oil wells were still burning out of 25 that Islamic State set on fire.

The Qayyara fields were a main financing source for the extremist group which took over several areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria to proclaim a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”.

Residents in Qayyara had complained of health problems and increasing pollution of the environment due to the constant fires at the oil fields.

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