Syria: Seven dead in landmine blast in Homs province

A landmine has killed at least seven people, including a child, in the central Syrian province of Homs, a non-governmental organization has said.

The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a rally on a deserted road near the historic city of Palmyra, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a police station, killing all two on board – two women, a child and four men, according to the source.

Explosives left in the fields, along roads or inside buildings on all sides in the Syrian conflict have injured thousands of civilians and killed hundreds more.

In 2020, 182 weapons of mass destruction were recorded in Syria, almost half of the 360 ​​victims of weapons of mass destruction worldwide this year, according to a recent report by the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, a civil society initiative to provide research on dispersion ammunition.

The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor reported a total of 4,099 victims of cluster munitions in Syria, including 2,102 during attacks and 1,997 from abandoned cluster munitions.

Across the country, a third of the population may be living near explosive devices, according to a UN report released in March.

One in two people is at risk of falling victim, the research adds.

The war in Syria has claimed the lives of nearly 500,000 people and displaced millions more since the conflict erupted in 2011 with the suppression of anti-government protests.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ