Russian helicopters participate in extinguishing the Lebanese fires near the Syrian border

Special sources told “Sputnik” that military helicopters belonging to the Russian forces operating in Syria began this morning, with the support of the Syrian firefighting teams, in fighting the fires that are expanding in northern Lebanon, after they began touching the Syrian border near the western countryside of Homs Governorate.

The sources added that Russian military helicopters carried out several flights, and dropped tens of tons of water over the fires that reached the town of Akum, which is affiliated with the city of Al-Qusayr in the western countryside of Homs, in addition to other flights towards the height of the fire inside the Lebanese borders.

A source in the Homs Fire Brigade confirmed to “Sputnik” that the readiness had been raised across Syrian territory, and that civil defense mechanisms and water tankers had been sent in order to control these fires and work to prevent them from spreading and expanding.

And the Syrian authorities announced, last Tuesday, that the indicators of the danger of the spread of fires indicate that most of the forest lands in northwestern Syria are affected by the high and very high levels of danger, from today until next Saturday.

In the fall of 2020, forest fires broke out in Syria in the governorates of Lattakia, Tartous and Homs.

Olive groves and valuable types of trees caught fire, when not only Russian helicopters participated in putting them out, but also Il-76MD planes of the Russian Air Force.