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A viral video showing Syrian fishers releasing fry into the Euphrates River has sparked accusations in Iraq of a deliberate biological attack on food security. However, environmental experts reject these claims, explaining that the downstream migration of invasive African catfish eggs and larvae is a natural hydrological occurrence across transboundary river basins.
A video circulating recently across Iraqi social media networks triggered widespread public anger, according to reporting by Aljazeera. The footage features Syrian fishers casting small fish fry into a body of water that the video’s publisher identified as the Euphrates River near Al-Bukamal, situated in the far eastern part of Syria’s Deir Ezzor Governorate toward the Iraqi border.
Social Media Backlash and Biological Warfare Claims in Iraq
Within minutes of its release, the video spread rapidly across Iraqi social media channels. Numerous pages carried commentary accusing internal factions within Syria of waging a biological war designed to undermine Iraqi food security, as reported by Aljazeera.
Commentators argued that flooding the Euphrates boundary with predatory African catfish could not be dismissed as a spontaneous event. Instead, online users characterized the action as a targeted effort to eradicate native fish populations and destroy the river’s biodiversity, labeling it as strategic, deliberate sabotage driven by malicious agendas, according to Aljazeera’s coverage.
Scientific Rejection of Intentional Stocking Claims by Iraqi Experts
Confronted with the intense online reaction that threatened to escalate an environmental dispute into a severe political flashpoint, Iraqi experts dismissed the allegations entirely during interviews with Aljazeera.
Hydrological Connections Across Turkey, Syria, and Iran
Most experts suggest that floodwaters likely submerged fish-rearing ponds situated close to river channels, allowing fish fry and eggs to drift into the main waterways.
Southern Turkey serves as the primary source for the Tigris and Euphrates river system supporting Iraq. The Euphrates forms where the Murat and Kara Su rivers converge inside Turkish territory before flowing through Syria into Iraq. Meanwhile, the Tigris originates in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and receives inflows from vital tributaries such as the Batman, Botan, and Garzan rivers.
In western Iran, the Sirwan River—known inside Iraq as the Diyala River—rises in the Zagros Mountains before crossing into Iraq to empty into the Tigris. The Euphrates route carries it across northeastern Syria prior to its entry into Iraq.
This hydrological interconnectivity among Turkey, Syria, and Iraq creates a natural pathway for aquatic organisms or invasive species to migrate. Dr. Mokhtar Habba, University of Baghdad and Iraq Green Climate Organization
Natural Drift Dynamics of Catfish Eggs and Larvae
Aquatic species frequently release floating or semi-floating eggs capable of traveling considerable distances pushed by river currents.
Furthermore, tiny fry and very young fish can drift downstream across greater distances than adult fish can achieve independently under their own power.
Despite these precedents, past invasions did not provoke the fierce public controversy currently surrounding the African catfish. Aljazeera notes that the African catfish is a voracious predator that feeds on smaller native fish, compounded by the fact that local populations in southern Iraq reject it on religious grounds because the species lacks scales.
