How Syria s Decade-Long War Has Left a Toxic Environmental Legacy msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Facebook and Google Earth help probe eco-crimes in the Middle East
Researchers are using the same open-source data methods that helped track war crimes in Syria to document environmental offenses in places like Yemen and Iraq.
The extremist IS group set oil wells on fire near Mosul in Iraq while fleeing the area in 2017
The impact of conflict and corruption on the environment in the Middle East is often easy to see but difficult to remedy. The long list of crimes against nature in the region includes things like makeshift oil refineries polluting the air in northern Syria, the devastation of agriculture and poaching of rare wildlife in Yemen and local companies pumping waste straight into Iraq s waterways.