Landmines, Explosives Endanger Syrian Civilians
Over a decade of conflict has resulted in Syria being extensively contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war, a major barrier to safe return and reconstruction efforts, Human Rights Watch said today. Contamination from weapons used during the 14-year conflict has killed at least 249 people, including 60 children, and injured another 379 since December 8, 2024, according to INSO, the international organization dedicated to enhancing the safety of aid workers.
The monthly number of casualties INSO has recorded from these incidents significantly increased after December 8, and international organizations and volunteer deminers told Human Rights Watch that this appears to have been driven by increased movement of displaced people returning home. Syria’s transitional government should work to urgently ensure the survey and clearance of landmines and explosive remnants of war. Stockpiles of weapons held by the former government should be secured and guarded to prevent further injuries and deaths.
“For the first time in over a decade there’s an opportunity to systematically tackle the extraordinary countrywide contamination in Syria by clearing landmines and explosive remnants of war,” said Richard Weir, senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Without urgent, nationwide clearance efforts, more civilians returning home to reclaim critical rights, lives, livelihoods, and land will be injured and killed.”
During a February 2025 visit to Syria, Human Rights Watch spoke with 18 people including victims, parents whose children were injured, and people from communities affected by uncleared landmines and explosive remnants of war from the northern, center, and southern parts of the country. Researchers also spoke to United Nations officials, three people engaged in mine clearance, and staff from nine international and local organizations working to survey and clear landmines and explosive remnants of war across Syria.
On the night of January 27, Raneem Abulhakim Masalma woke up to a loud explosion inside her home that killed her mother and her 7-year-old niece, and injured her and 11 other family members, including her son Bashar, 16. Earlier that day, Bashar had brought home a weapon he found at an unsecured military base 100 meters from their home in Daraa. Bashar was handling the weapon in his room at about midnight when it exploded, causing the injuries and deaths, including metal fragment injuries to both of his legs, and a fire that destroyed much of their home. “He had no idea of the dangers,” Masalma said.
None of the victims and witnesses interviewed – many of whose loved ones had been injured or killed since December 8 because of unexploded ordnance – knew of any way to report the possible presence of explosive remnants of war to authorities. Those interviewed all said that they had not been given any information about the dangers of unexploded ordnance in their area and that lack of knowledge was a key contributor to their relatives being injured or killed.
Between 2011 and December 2024, Syrian government forces, its allies, and armed opposition groups used antipersonnel landmines, cluster munitions, and other explosive weapons extensively, resulting in the contamination of large swaths of the country, some of which have only become accessible since the collapse of the Assad government. Prior to December 8, landmines and explosive remnants of war frequently injured or killed civilians returning home and accessing agricultural land.
Several factors such as the lack of organized information, coordination, and national institutions and bodies, as well as regulatory hurdles, inhibit the ability to address the staggering scale of contamination, members of the mine action community and UN officials said.
A 35-year-old engineer and teacher from Idlib in northwestern Syria, Fahad Walid Al-Ghajar, joined a volunteer demining team to help his neighbors return home. His brother said that on February 21, Al-Ghajar had been helping to clear farmland southwest of Idlib city when a munition he was attempting to move exploded, killing him. Al-Ghajar’s wife and four children have not received any support since then, his brother said.
Landmines and explosive remnants of war result not only in direct loss of life or severe injuries that can cause a permanent disability or life-long scarring, but they also cause psychological trauma, as well as so-called reverberating harm that undermines basic human rights. This includes loss of property, displacement, a reduced standard of living, and impaired access to shelter, health care, education, and basic services such as electricity. Survivors often require long-term medical assistance and specialized treatment, as well as psychosocial and mental health support.
The transitional Syrian government and international donors should prioritize survey, clearance, and risk education, Human Rights Watch said. The transitional government should urgently establish a national civilian-led mine action authority and center, working closely with the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) to coordinate ongoing mine action efforts across the country, develop standards, and revise current registration agreements for humanitarian mine action organizations to facilitate their lifesaving work. The transitional government and donors should also ensure that mine clearance activities are adequately funded and provide adequate payments for victims.
“The explosive remnants of war need to be cleared so that people can return, live safely in their communities, and engage in activities critical to their livelihoods, like agriculture,” Weir said. “The transitional government should work with donors and humanitarian organizations to facilitate this urgent, lifesaving work.”
Human Rights Watch is cofounder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 1997 Nobel Peace Co-Laureate, and the Cluster Munition Coalition. It contributes to the campaign’s annual Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor reports.
Human Rights Watch spoke to four parents whose children were injured by unexploded or abandoned ordnance they encountered at abandoned military bases in Daraa, in southern Syria. Three children now have an acquired disability from their injuries. A community leader told Human Rights Watch that only one of the five major military bases in and around the city has a locked gate guarded by soldiers from the transitional government. The others are not closed or secured, even though the community requested assistance from the transitional government. He also said that since December 8, no one had provided community members with information about the dangers of unexploded, abandoned ordnance in their area and that this had been a key contributor to injuries.
On February 14, Rayan Ashraf Swaidan, 14, lost a finger while playing with his friends at a military base on the northern outskirts of Daraa, said his father, Ashraf Isa Swaidan. A volunteer clearance team had done limited work but did not secure the site or warn the community. Swaidan said his son picked up a munition he found on the ground and threw it at the wall. It exploded, slicing off the index finger on his left hand. “We rushed him to the hospital in Daraa to see if they could reattach his finger, but they could not,” Swaidan said. “He is okay now, but he has become much more solitary. He keeps to himself.”
Sahar Mahmoud al-Bidawi said her son Muatassim Kiwan, 12, was playing with his friends at another military base further north of Daraa on January 15, when the boys decided to start a fire and throw in remnants they had found. Kiwan threw some bullets into the fire, which then exploded, spraying metal fragments into his head and shoulder. He lost hearing in his right ear, has nerve damage in his face, and cannot open his right eye because of the incident, and he requires further surgery on his skull in the coming months.
“He has become scared of everything and now has panic attacks,” Al-Bidawi said. Both she and the community leader said that though a volunteer clearance team carried out some clearance activities at the base after Kiwan was injured, nothing had been done to restrict public access to the base.
Contamination of military bases is only part of the problem. Some rural areas are also heavily contaminated. Aghiad Mohammed Khair, 10, was collecting mushrooms on the outskirts of Daraa city on February 19, when he and his friends came across some unexploded ordnance. “They played with them and then the remnants exploded, leading to the severing of my son’s index finger and a fracture in his middle finger,” his father said. “Nine other children also had minor injuries. There are no warning signs in the area, even though we now know it hasn’t been cleared of landmines or war remnants.”
Ahmed Nayef al-Zgheib, 38, said he had been cautiously collecting firewood to heat his home in al-Jneinah, a village in Deir al-Zor, on February 7:
Human Rights Watch could not confirm what type of explosive weapon caused the injury resulting in an acquired disability.
A man who asked to remain anonymous leads a volunteer mine clearance team in Palmyra, in central Syria. On February 12, he was in a car with other volunteers escorting a mechanic, Fawzi al-Ali, who was in the car behind him, to repair a vehicle at a base operated by fighters from the transitional government. Al-Ali had brought along his 8-year-old son and a local resident who knew the area well. The team leader said they were driving on a route he thought safe, when suddenly the car behind them hit something and exploded. He said al-Ali died immediately from serious injuries to his whole body. His son lost his left leg during the explosion, and the resident guide lost both legs.
“What happened to Fawzi is, sadly, not at all unique,” he said in late February. “Last week, 21 people in the area died because of explosions like this.” Human Rights Watch did not independently verify the report. He said an 18-year-old member of his team was recently killed during clearance operations. “We need an international team to come with equipment and do an assessment to support us and our work,” he said.
Farmers said that the contamination was affecting their livelihoods. Mohammed Al-Nazzal, a farmer from the Raqqa countryside, said that his family’s land and his neighbor’s is all contaminated:
Hassan Zakrya Hassan, 43, from Tabqa, 40 kilometers west of Raqqa, said he and his neighbors returned home in 2018 after several years of displacement only to find out that their farmland was heavily contaminated. Nearly seven years later, he said they’re still unable to use the land:
Communities attempting to return home or restore their livelihoods have turned to volunteers for help to clear land because of the lack of an adequately resourced, coordinated, and effective countrywide response. In many cases, local volunteers and some organizations with little or no specialized equipment and only informal training are responding to pleas from communities.
Human Rights Watch spoke to three residents of Kafr Nabl, a village 35 kilometers south of Idlib, in northern Syria. The mayor said that between 2018 and 2019, the Syrian army forced all of the roughly 450 households from the village out of the area and then turned it into a de facto military base.
The army proceeded to mine the area, he said, which borders on territory that at the time was under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS), an armed group whose members now dominate the Syrian transitional government. Residents said that two or three days after Assad’s government fell, they began to return to the area to see what remained of their homes and agricultural land. They found fields and trees burned down, and many houses heavily damaged.
Soon, some residents came across landmines laid in the fields near the army base. Rizzu Mohammed, 65, a community leader, said that a volunteer team contacted village leaders in early January and offered to come and clear their area of mines. Mohammed said the team spent about a week in the village and successfully cleared at least 70 mines, including 27 mines on his own agricultural land.
That team left, and on January 15, another clearance team of six or seven people with some military experience, who said they had been trained by HTS in demining techniques, came to Kafr Nabl village, residents said. During the clearance operations, the team found a range of additional landmines, including OZM-72, PMN-1, YM-1, POM-2S, and PMN-type antipersonnel mines and YM-2 and YM-3 anti-vehicle mines, a member of the team, Abdo Faisal Hamdi told Human Rights Watch. While Hamdi, 25, was attempting to clear mines in the village of Fatatra, 14 kilometers west of Kufr Nabel, he stepped on one. He lost both his legs, and one eye and has severe damage to the other.
Also in mid-January, Mohammed Sami Sued, 38, a Kafr Nabl resident who said he had demining experience during his military service, reached out to his former neighbors and offered to help them clear their land, so they could start farming again. Zaydan al-Husni, 42, took him up on the offer, having found at least 10 mines on his land.
The two of them returned to the area together, neither wearing any protective equipment, al-Husni said. Al-Husni shared photographs of OZM-72 bounding fragmentation antipersonnel mines, PMN-type antipersonnel mines, and TM-57 and TM-62 anti-vehicle mines with Human Rights Watch, which he said Sued had collected from his land that day.
Al-Husni said he and Sued came across at least six items that Sued wanted to detonate with an explosive charge. He laid the explosive charge but then decided to take a closer look at the items. As Sued was on his knees leaning over them, one of the items detonated. A metal fragment hit his head, and he died immediately, al-Husni said. Al-Husni, who was standing behind him at the time of the explosion, was injured in his right chest, back and left thigh, but survived after neighbors heard the explosion and rushed over to take him to the hospital.
Al-Husni said that since December 8, eight residents of Kafr Nabl had been killed because of explosive remnants of war and at least three more had been killed in neighboring areas.
Urgent steps are needed to improve humanitarian mine action work, which includes clearing landmines and explosive remnants of war and other activities, such as surveys of areas and victim assistance. Members of the mine action sector and UN officials said effective humanitarian mine action work is being inhibited by several factors, including the lack of overall coordination and centralization of information. The years-long fragmentation of governance structures, the sheer scale of contamination, and the lack of a national mine action authority and center have exacerbated the problem. There are also complicated requirements for registration and operation, some of which are inconsistent with the ability of organizations to do their work impartially.
For years, mine action in Syria has been underfunded by donors in comparison to the needs, frustrating efforts to begin new programming or continue basic work, such as mine risk education. Because of these limitations, clearance is often undertaken by local and private groups or individuals with little or no formal training or coordination with national or international mine clearance operators.
In light of these realities, Human Rights Watch is making the following recommendations to the transitional government and international community:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/08/syria-landmines-explosive-remnants-harming-civilians