Battling Blaze in Hoor Al-Azim enters 3rd day

Ahvaz, July 22, IRNA – Fire in some parts of the lagoon straddling Iran and Iraq has been extinguished while the operation of fire fighting enters its third consecutive day, an Iranian local official said on Sunday The fire has been burning in two districts of the Iraqi part of Hoor Al-Azim since 15 days ago, said Ahmad-Reza Lahijanzadeh, head of environment department in Khuzestan Province, adding that the operation of battling fire in the southern part of the lagoon was launched on Friday. Satellite and bird's eye images show that the fire has been extinguished in some parts of the lagoon, but the fire in other parts is still burning, he told Islamic Republic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Noting that this is Iran's first fire fighting operation using helicopters, the official said that it is too early to talk about the progress and the time required for extinguishing the fire completely. On Friday Lahijanzadeh told IRNA that the operation had begun following coordination with Iraqi officials the same day. The Iraqi part of Hoor Al-Azim prone to the fire covers an area of 150,000 hectares, more than 16,000 hectares of which have been burning over the past two weeks. The lagoon has been an origin of sand and dust storms since being dried due to the low level of rivers' water.