(VOVworld)- Indonesia on Friday launched its biggest ever operation to put out annual slash-and-burn forest fires that cloak Southeast Asia with a hazardous haze.

Indonesia launches biggest ever forest fire mission

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency, said 32 aircraft and helicopters have been deployed in support of more than 22,000 soldiers, policemen, civil servants and volunteers fighting the fires in six provinces of Borneo and South Sumatra. The fleet includes six aircraft – four of which can carry out water-bombing missions – from Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. The annual fires are illegally set to clear land for palm plantations. The fires have been particularly difficult to extinguish this year because of unusually dry conditions caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon.