Belgium contributed €1.35 million last year to mine clearance work by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Iraq and Syria, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.
Since 2019, Belgium has invested more than €13 million in mine action projects in the two countries. After years of heavy conflict, Iraq and Syria remain contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants of war. These pose a serious threat to civilians.
Read more…
Source: Belga News Agency
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Why is an ex-Syria War jihadist fighting for Ukraine against Russia?
January 10, 2023
A Syrian Civil War Chechen jihadist organization leader was confirmed as fighting in Ukraine against Russian forces in footage published by Ukrainian military intelligence on Saturday. Rustam Azhiev, better known by his nom-de-guerre Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, was shown in a video of operations in the Donbas city of Bakhmut, firing what was identified as an ...
- Syria: SDF uncovers large weapons cache in Hasakah province
January 9, 2023
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday announced they uncovered a large weapons cache in the village of al-Qirawan, Tal Hamis in the Hasakah province. It consisted of large numbers of explosive belts, improvised explosive device (IED), timed bombs, AK-74 rifles, ammunition, and explosive materials (C-4). Read more… Source: Kurdistan24
- Iraq reopens Baghdad’s Green Zone to ease traffic jams
January 8, 2023
Iraqi authorities reopened Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday in an attempt to ease traffic jams in the capital after it was closed and reopened several times in recent years. Starting in the early hours of the day, Iraqi authorities removed checkpoints and opened major roads and tunnels that cut through the zone on the ...
- Türkiye: Over 100-Year-Old WWI bomb exploded by robot
January 3, 2023
An over 100-year-old bomb has finally exploded in Turkey. Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula was the location of one of WWI’s bloodiest battles. A dangerous remnant of that conflict, which raged from April 25, 1915 until Jan. 9, 1916, was found in northwestern Turkey: An unexploded artillery shell. With the help of a controlled bomb disposal robot, the ...
- One careful step at a time through Lebanon’s minefields
December 27, 2022
A visit to a minefield starts with some crucial safety notes. And they will save your life – when you are just steps away from deadly buried explosives, you need to pay attention. Red-painted sticks dug into the ground mean danger. Tread any further and you risk stepping right onto a mine. White sticks are the ...
- Israel: Jerusalem bombing suspect ‘identifies with Islamic State’
December 27, 2022
Israeli authorities say they have arrested a suspect in Jerusalem over twin bombings that killed two people last month and that he identifies with Islamic State. Aslam Farouh, 26, an Arab man with an Israeli residency card, lived between Ramallah and Kafr Akab, a neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the Shin Bet domestic security agency and Israel police ...
- Israel prevents suicide bombing attack; bomb caught before detonation
December 26, 2022
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Monday that it prevented a massive terrorist bombing attack and suicide bombings slated to occur within Israel. It said it arrested a number of terror suspects in the West Bank and uncovered a number of operatives in the Gaza Strip. The terror cell, the agency said, was busted and ...
- Iraq: Explosion in Erbil Governorate kills two soldiers, injures three
December 22, 2022
Two soldiers were killed and three were injured in an explosion in northern Iraq, Iraqi state news said Thursday. The soldiers were traveling in an army vehicle a day earlier in the Makhmour district when an explosive device detonated, the state Iraqi News Agency reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the latest ...
- Iraq: At least nine police killed in blast near Kirkuk
December 18, 2022
At least nine Iraqi federal police officers have been killed in a bomb blast near Iraq’s north-central city of Kirkuk, security sources told news agency. The sources said those killed on Sunday were traveling in a convoy when the bomb struck. The blast took place near the village of Safra, which lies about 30 km (20 miles) ...
- Iraq: Bomb explosion kills three children in Nineveh province
December 17, 2022
A mortar, believed to have been left by the Islamic State (ISIS), exploded to a number of children in Bashiqa town, Nineveh province on Saturday, killing three and injuring another, according to a local official. Rafaat Smo, deputy governor of Nineveh, told Rudaw on Saturday that a number of children played with a mortar in the ...
- Yemen: Al-Qaida gunmen target government forces in Abyan, 3 soldiers killed
December 16, 2022
Gunmen of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch targeted military vehicles of the country’s government forces in the southern province of Abyan on Friday, a military official told Xinhua. “Four military vehicles of the government forces were targeted by two explosions of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) detonated remotely by al-Qaida gunmen in Abyan’s district of Mudiyah,” the local ...
- Iraq: 3 killed in explosion north of Baghdad
December 14, 2022
Three members of the Iraqi security forces were killed in an explosion north of Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraq’s military said. The personnel were killed when an explosive device detonated during a security operation in the Khan area of the Tarmiyah district. A commander of the 59th Infantry Brigade and two others were killed, a military statement ...
- Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing now in American custody
December 11, 2022
A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S. custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday. The arrest of Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi is a milestone ...
- UNMAS director calls for urgent acceleration of mine action efforts in Yemen
December 8, 2022
Hudaydah, 8 December 2022 – The Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) Ms Ilene Cohn concluded a week-long visit to Yemen where she visited Hudaydah, one of the most mine and explosive remnants of war-affected governorates in Yemen. Over the last 6 months, UNMHA has recorded 159 casualties from landmine and ERW-related incidents ...
- West London barber convicted of funding terrorism
December 8, 2022
A west London barber has been found guilty of sending thousands of pounds to fund terrorist activity in Syria, following an investigation by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command. Tarek Namouz, 43 (01.09.79) of west London, was arrested in May 2021 in a pre-planned operation by counter terrorism officers. Material found on his phone indicated his extremist ...