In Pictures

ISIL’s blazing trail of destruction in Qayyara

Amid their retreat from the Iraqi town, ISIL fighters lit oil wells ablaze, blanketing the area in suffocating smoke.

Iraqis fleeing the fighting between the Iraqi army and ISIL sit by at a checkpoint near Qayyara. Analysts have said that the smoke from the burning oil wells does nothing to prevent satellite surveillance used by coalition forces, but the toxic fumes have caused significant devastation to the landscape and the civilian population. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

1 Nov 2016

Qayyara, Iraq – The oil-rich town of Qayyara, about 60km south of Mosul, was retaken in August from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whose fighters controlled the town for more than two years.

Anticipating their defeat, fighters with ISIL (also known as ISIS) first torched oil wells along the edges of the town in early July. The oil plumes billowing up from the ground aimed to impede US-led coalition air strikes, and to leave a ruined prize behind.

An acrid stench of sulphur and oil now permeates the city, and soot has stained everything black. Still, life is returning to the streets. Civilians have come back from camps and informal settlements, as fruit sellers ply their trade with paper masks over their mouths to help protect their lungs. Iraqi fire crews have so far been unable to fully extinguish the massive fires.

In the meantime, the civilian population of Qayyara has been left to choke on the fumes, spread at the mercy of the wind, which can leave the skies clear on one day, and blot out the sun the next.

A tree is completely blackened by smoke from the oil well fires in Qayyara. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

A local fruit seller stands next to his car in the midst of the low-hanging smoke pollution, which engulfs the town depending on what direction the wind blows. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

A cow in Qayyara ambles down the centre of one of the town's streets. The smoke pollution has discoloured vegetation, buildings, people and animals throughout the town. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

A villager rides a bike through the centre of town. Although it is the midday, the smoke pollution limits visibility significantly, giving the day a ghostly and dark hue. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

Women wait to get treated in a hospital in Qayyara. More than 100 civilians have come into the hospital for medical treatment due to respiratory problems from the burning oil wells. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

Women and a baby await treatment in the hospital. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

A child is brought into the hospital to received treatment for respiratory distress. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

A child cries out the doctor inserts a needle from a saline drip, part of the treatment for respiratory distress. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

Children outside near one of the oil well fires. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

A resident said that his wife cleans her children three or four times a day, but smoke means that they quickly get dirty again. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

Children throw rocks into one of the many puddles of oil bubbling up around the town of Qayyara. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

Residents inspect the damage caused to one home near the oil well fires in Qayyara. The back garden of the house has been flooded with a pool of crude oil flowing up out of the ground. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

An oil-well worker stands near the closest and most threatening fire in Qayyara. [Andrea DiCenzo/Al Jazeera]

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