Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance Continue to Kill Civilians in Syria

Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance Continue to Kill Civilians in Syria
—————————
Landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to pose a deadly threat to civilians across Syria, with several casualties reported in recent incidents, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The monitoring group said that four civilians, including two children, were killed and four others, including two children, were injured in separate explosions involving landmines and unexploded munitions over the past 24 hours.

According to the Observatory, one child was killed when unexploded ordnance detonated in the city of Mayadin in Deir ez-Zor province. In southern Idlib, a man and his wife were killed in a landmine explosion in the village of Samkeh. Another child was killed and two others injured when a landmine exploded in the Rawd al-Wahsh area of the al-Sukhnah desert in eastern Homs. In a separate incident, two shepherds were injured by a landmine near the village of al-Dibs in Raqqa province.

The Observatory said the repeated incidents underscore the continuing danger posed by landmines and explosive remnants of war, which remain scattered across agricultural, rural, and former conflict areas.

The organization called on Syrian authorities and international agencies to intensify mine clearance operations and accelerate efforts to remove explosive remnants of war in order to reduce civilian casualties.