Center for Human Rights warns of the increasing victims of mines in Syria
The “Euro-Mediterranean Center for Human Rights” warned in a report, yesterday, Monday, of the high number of mine victims in Syria, despite the relative calm experienced by the fighting fronts in Syria, stressing that there are large numbers of them still scattered among the homes of civilians.
The center stated that the parties to the conflict in Syria are involved in laying mines to varying degrees, but that the greatest responsibility rests with the Assad regime forces, given their possession of various military equipment, which includes multiple types of Russian-made mines.
The Center indicated that the Assad regime forces possessed special weapons to combat mines, but these weapons were used in the attack on civilian areas such as the Russian “UR-77” system, which is designed to destroy minefields, and the Assad regime forces used them in the attack on the Jobar neighborhood in Damascus and some areas in province of Allepo.
The numbers announced by the center show that most of the mine victims hail from the governorates of Aleppo and Raqqa, and constitute half of the victims who died as a result of these mines, followed by Deir Ezzor Governorate, which constitutes 16% of the victims of these mines, then Daraa and followed by Hama.
The year 2017 witnessed the largest percentage of victims due to the explosion of landmines in various Syrian governorates, according to the report issued by the Euro-Mediterranean Center.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said, in a statement, on Sunday 4 April, coinciding with the International Day for Mine Awareness, that ten years after the Syrian crisis, about 11.5 million people live in danger of landmines and explosive remnants of war, with the transformation of vast areas. In Syria, to minefields.
According to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in December 2020, Syria is among the worst countries in the world in terms of the amount of mines planted since 2011, despite the international law banning their use, noting that mines have killed at least 2,601 civilians in Syria since 2011.
