Unexploded ordnance | Nine civilians, including seven children, kil-led by explosion of old ordnance since early 2023

War ordnance, such as old landmines and unexploded IEDs, bombs, shells, projectiles, grenades, etc. which are everywhere in Syria, continues to pose a threat to the safety and lives of innocent Syrians. These explosive remnants of war (ERW) have tragically killed and injured a large number of Syrian people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked the issue of explosive remnants of war and documented all the casualties in explosions of old landmines and unexploded ordnance in all zones of influence across Syria since early January 2023. Old ordnance left nine civilians, including a woman and seven children, dead.

 

Here are further details:

• January 6: A child displaced from Abu Al-Duhur city in the eastern countryside of Idlib was killed by the explosion of an old projectile while searching for the remains of potatoes in farmland in Zardana town in the northern countryside of Idlib.

• January 11: A child was injured when an unexploded ordnance exploded while playing next to his house in Ihsam town, south of Idlib.

• January 11: Three displaced people of one family, a woman, and two of her sons, were seriously injured by the explosion of a heater in their tent in a makeshift camp in Barshaya village in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. The injured people were taken to the hospital for treatment.

• January 11: Four olive workers were injured by the explosion of an old landmine in the farmland of Zilin village in the northern Hama countryside. The victims were transferred to Al-Hayyat hospital in Mahrada.

• January 11: A child was killed, and his three siblings were injured, by the explosion of an unexploded projectile in a heater in their home in Khirbet Nada, east of Azaz city in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. The injured children were taken to the hospital for treatment.

• January 14: Five members of one family, a father, a mother and three children, were killed, and two women were seriously injured in the explosion of an old landmine while collecting stones in Dubai village in Jabal Kawkab in the eastern countryside of Al-Hasakah, in regime-held areas. The injured women were taken to the hospital for treatment.

• January 15: Two children were killed, and two others were injured when an old landmine, planted earlier by ISIS, exploded in Duwair Al-Sharqi town which is under the control of the regime forces and Iranian-backed militias in Al-Bokamal countryside, east of Deir Ezzor.

 

Accordingly, SOHR has documented the death of nine civilians, including a woman and seven children, due to explosions of old landmines, unexploded shells and bombs across Syria since early 2023. In addition, 21 civilians, including 14 children and two women, sustained various injuries in the same period.

 

The casualties are distributed regionally as follows:

 

• Areas controlled by Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and opposition factions in Idlib: One fatality; a child, and one injured child.

• Regime-controlled areas: Seven fatalities, including five children and a woman, and 12 injured civilians, including eight children, two women and four men.

• “Euphrates Shield” area in east Aleppo countryside: One fatality, a child, and six injured people, including five children.