Landmine Explosion Leaves Two Syrian Children Dead

(MENAFN) Two young children lost their lives Friday after a landmine detonated in the Syrian countryside outside Damascus, state media reported.

Syrian media said the blast occurred in the Qalamoun Mountains, in the stretch between the towns of Deir Atiyah and Al-Qaryatayn, as the two children accompanied their father on a sheep-herding excursion in the area.

The mine responsible for the tragedy was identified as unexploded ordnance left behind by the former regime. Both victims were rushed to Al-Qalamoun Hospital in Al-Nabek, but one child was pronounced dead before the ambulance could reach the facility, while the second succumbed to critical wounds shortly after admission.

The fatal incident is part of a grim and recurring pattern. Syrian authorities regularly report civilian casualties — many of them children — caused by landmines and unexploded remnants of war scattered across the country following a devastating 14-year conflict that raged from 2011 to 2024.

The war, which ignited under the rule of Bashar al-Assad, left hundreds of thousands dead and gutted Syria's infrastructure over more than a decade of relentless fighting. The conflict drew to a close when opposition forces swept into Damascus in December 2024, triggering the collapse of the Assad regime — but the deadly legacy of the war lives on in the form of buried ordnance still claiming innocent lives across the country.

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