After years of war and drought, Iraq's bumper crop is burning


FILE PHOTO: A fire and smoke rises from a wheat field on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq June 15, 2019. REUTERS/Abdullah Rashid

BAQUBA/NINEVEH PLAINS, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi farmer Riyadh woke on May 13 to find his wheat crop ablaze. In his fields in Diyala province, he found the remains of a mobile phone and plastic bottle which he believes was an explosive device detonated in the night to start the fire.

Riyadh and his neighbours in Sheikh Tami village put out the blaze and saved most of his crop but hundreds of other farmers in Iraq have been less fortunate since Islamic State urged its supporters to wage economic warfare with fire.

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