In the Toxic Wake of the Islamic State (2017)

In 2017, when the Islamic State was pushed out of areas it controlled in northern Iraq, it set fire to 19 oil wells around the town of Qayyarah. The wells burned for months, filling the sky with charcoal black smoke and blanketing the town in toxic particulates. Experts at the time warned that the environmental effects would last generations, poisoning Qayyarah’s land and water and condemning its children to respiratory and other illnesses.

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