Illegal logging turns Syria's forests into 'barren land'

The dwindling forest on the shores of the Euphrates river "is shrinking every year", said Ahmed al-Sheikh, 40, a supermarket owner in the village of Jaabar, in the Kurdish-held part of Syria's Raqa province.

Cut trees stand at the Tabqa Reserve near the village of Jaabar, in Syria's northeastern Raqa governorate, on July 11, 2023. (AFP)