Hunters back to activities in Anbar

ANBAR / IraqiNews.com: The decrease in violent acts and armed groups’ activities encouraged scores of Anbar residents to take up hunting again within an environment rich with animals and rare birds. “Hunting enthusiats took up their hobby again after years of cessation due to the violent acts in Anbar,” Tareq Youssef, 43, from Ramadi told IraqiNews.com news agency. “I decided to stop hunting with my friends in the past years because of the violence and armed groups’ control over the province. This is a dangerous act; I could die, but things have changed since the armed groups were eliminated and security forces were deployed throughout the province,” he added. “Every once in a while I gather my friends, mainly during vacations and weekends, and head for the nearby wildernesses or al-Tharthar lake carrying simple hunting equipment,” he said. “We are not allowed to go to some regions, especially the region to the north of al-Tharthar lake as it is near to a military region of the Iraqi army and its near to the Saudi border also, where there is an intensive deployment of border guards,” he continued. “Hunters have returned to hunt in several regions in Anbar,” Hajj Abduljabar al-Dulaimi, 88, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Before 2003, hunters from several Arab countries; Syria, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, used to come to the province to hunt, mainly in the western region, where there is plenty of deer and rare birds and the special atmosphere in Anbar,” he said. “But after 2003, everything changed, forests in al-Qaem in western Anbar were destroyed,” he added. For his part, Captain Abbas al-Ubeidi, from the army in Anbar, said “Anbar has witnessed tough conditions in recent years, which prevented hunters from practicing their hobby or approaching some regions for security reasons, mainly those near to military locations.” “Anbar today is calm and the chance is available for hunters to enjoy hunting in these rich places,” he said. Meanwhile, member of the Iraqi hunters associations, Ahmad Ghazi, warned against using inappropriate hunting tools. “In the past, hunters used to use safe tools, but in the past years they started to use dangerous one like Kalashnikovs, U.S. and Russian rifles and hand grenades for fishing,” he said. He asserted that the association is working to limit the use of such banned tools to protect the Iraqi environments and to maintain the number of endangered animals. SH (I)/SR 1