In the three months since the fall of the Assad regime, more than 200 people, including women and children, have been killed in war-related remnant incidents that bomb disposal experts have warned make “no area in Syria safe”.
Thousands of landmines and unexploded shells and ammunition are scattered across the country in major cities and rural areas that have witnessed military operations and bombings for 14 years, The Guardian reported.
According to the Halo Trust, the world's largest landmine relief organization, 640 people have been killed or injured by the attacks by last week. An earlier UN report found a third of the victims were children.
“We cannot say that any area in Syria is safe from the remnants of war,” said Mohammed Sami al-Mohammad, demining programme coordinator for the Syrian Civil Defence (also known as the White Helmets), an NGO funded by governments and development organisations.
Mohammed said it would take decades to clear the mines and make Syria safe. “There are countries where the wars ended 40 years ago, but they still have not completely eliminated this danger. It is not that simple, and what is happening in Syria is much more devastating than what is happening elsewhere.”
Volunteers are trying to clear land to make it safe for people to return, but tragically they are also losing their own lives as a result.
Fahd al-Ghajar, 35, was one of them, who has been regularly posting photos on Facebook showing his dangerous work clearing mines in various parts of Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December last year.
Ghajar, a married father of four, learned to lay and clear mines while working for the Syrian army before the start of the civil war in 2011, before leaving the army to join an opposition movement aiming to end the Assad regime.
On February 21, Ghajar was killed by a landmine while clearing a farm in northern Syria. His brother, Abduljabbar Alghajar, said Ghajar successfully cleared the house but was killed instantly when a mine exploded while he was inspecting the field.
