News – April 2023


  • Fort Bliss, Texas-based team wins all-Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Competition

    April 24, 2023

    FORT CARSON, Colo. – The U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from the Fort Bliss, Texas-based 734th Ordnance Company (EOD) “Luchadores” won first place in the all-Army EOD Team of the Year Competition, April 19. Staff Sgt. Lesley S. Sparks and Staff Sgt. Walter J. Russell from the 734th EOD Company took top honors during the ...

  • Pakistan: Seven killed, 44 wounded In blasts inside police station in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

    April 24, 2023

    At least seven people were killed and dozens injured in an attack inside a counter-terrorism police station in Pakistan on Monday, causing the building to collapse, officials said. Numerous blasts ripped through the building in Kabal town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the latest in a string of high profile attacks targeting police in Pakistan. Read more… Source: ...

  • UK: Sharnbrook man charged after explosion at a house

    April 24, 2023

    A man has been charged after an explosion at a house. The small explosion happened at a property in Loring Road in Sharnbrook on 10 April. Bedfordshire Police said Matthew Haydon, 47, of Loring Road, Sharnbrook, was charged at the weekend with causing an explosion likely to endanger life or property and has been remanded in ...

  • Northern Ireland: Newtownards petrol bomb attack may be linked to drugs feud

    April 23, 2023

    A petrol bomb attack in County Down could be linked to an ongoing feud between rival drugs gangs, police say. Just before 23:00 BST on Friday, police received a report that a car had been set alight outside a property in Greyabbey Road in Ballywalter. Read more… Source: BBC news  

  • Mali: At least 10 killed, dozens wounded in central Mopti attack

    April 22, 2023

    At least 10 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in a bomb attack near a military camp and airport in central Mali, according to an official and a military spokesperson. Yacouba Maiga, a spokesperson for the regional governor, told the Reuters news agency that more than 60 people were wounded in the attack ...

  • UK: Glasgow man caught with three explosive devices under seat of car while out driving

    April 22, 2023

    A man who was caught with three improvised explosive devices under the driver’s seat of his car when police stopped the vehicle in Glasgow’s east end has been jailed for 40 months. James Curran claimed that he had drawn inspiration from a character in an apocalyptic novel when he made the IEDs using fireworks, nails and ...

  • Ukraine’s Defence Ministry reports number of landmine fatalities since start of full-scale invasion

    April 22, 2023

    124 people, including 6 children, have been killed by explosive devices in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ruslan Berehulia, Head of the Department of Environmental Safety and Anti-mine Action of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said: “As of today, according to the available data, 124 Ukrainians have been killed, six of whom were children. ...

  • Ukraine: Several dozen anti-tank minefields, barriers set up in the Northern Operational Zone past week

    April 22, 2023

    Throughout the past week alone, Ukraine’s defense forces have planted several dozen more anti-tank minefields and erected special barriers in the Northern Operational Zone, also digging nearly 3,000 meters of trenches and 4,500 meters of anti-tank ditches. This was announced by Lieutenant-General Serhiy Naiev, Commander of Ukraine’s Joint Forces, Ukrinform reports. Read more… Source: Ukrinform  

  • UN: IED attacks continue to take their toll on civilians in Mali

    April 21, 2023

    Attacks involving Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) continue to take their toll on civilians in Mali. In the first quarter of 2023, the country recorded 39 incidents resulting in over 30 deaths and 86 injuries. On April 9, six passengers, one man and five women, were killed when a public transport vehicle struck an IED in ...

  • Yemen, The Land of Millions of Mines

    April 21, 2023

    A six-month U.N. brokered truce in Yemen ended in October 2022, with no agreement to extend it or bring an end to the eight years of civil war. Even though the conflict may escalate at any time, U.N. officials warn that the greatest threat to the people in Yemen for many years to come will ...

  • Pentagon Aid Package to Ukraine Includes Decades-Old Anti-Tank Land Mines

    April 21, 2023

    The Pentagon’s latest weapons package for Ukraine includes relics from the Cold War to help blunt Russian advances and limit their ability to maneuver during an expected spring offensive. The weapons, M21 antitank land mines, have been in service with the Department of Defense since at least the early 1960s. An unknown number of them will ...

  • Two percent of BiH territory is mined: “After suffering from landmines, you don’t live, you survive”

    April 21, 2023

    The hostilities were over, but there were so many mines that it was impossible to pass. I am not the only one, more of us were injured. Walking through a forest, we came across minefields and that is where got injured, recalls Boro Radiskovic from Stanari near Doboj. He is one of the 1.758 people who, ...

  • Nigeria: 214 people killed since January in attacks in Kaduna state

    April 21, 2023

    A January to March security report presented to authorities in Nigeria’s embattled Northwest Kaduna state indicates that at least 214 people were killed in terrorist attacks and communal clashes, according to Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan. The report explained that 196 men, 14 women and four children were killed, while ...

  • Lithuania to assist Azerbaijan in addressing Mine Action

    April 21, 2023

    Lithuania will be assisting Azerbaijan in the area of mine action through the EU Team Europe Initiative in 2023, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend. “Azerbaijan is one of Lithuania’s strongest partners in terms of the number of EU Twinning projects awarded to Lithuania in the Eastern Partnership countries. So far, Lithuania has participated ...

  • Luke EOD trains at Camp Navajo: Furious Alpaca

    April 21, 2023

    Twenty-one members assigned to the 56th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal flight participated in a three-day field training exercise, Furious Alpaca, April 10 – 13, 2023, at Camp Navajo, Arizona. The strategic objective of the exercise was to conduct EOD operations in a contested, deployed environment alongside a foreign partner while facing threats from a ...

  • Russia: Two people injured in Belgorod blast

    April 21, 2023

    According to preliminary information, two people were injured in a blast that rocked the southwestern Russian city of Belgorod late on Thursday, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that an emergency ejection of an air ordnance occurred when a Su-34 plane of the Russian Aerospace ...

  • India: Policeman injured while defusing an IED in Chhattisgarh

    April 20, 2023

    A policeman was injured when an improvised explosive device (IED), suspected to have been planted by Maoists, exploded while he was trying to defuse it in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Thursday, police said. This is the third such incident in Bijapur district in the last 22 days. Read more… Source: Republic World  

  • Austria to join mine clearance efforts in Ukraine

    April 20, 2023

    Austria will support humanitarian mine clearance efforts in Ukraine, as part of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Support Programme for Ukraine. According to Alexander Schallenberg, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria, in an interview with Ukrinform news agency. Read more… Source: Yahoo! News  

  • Mali: Two Peacekeepers injured in mine explosion in Mopti

    April 19, 2023

    The UN mission in Mali said on social networks that two peacekeepers were wounded by a mine explosion in central Mali. “Our office in Mopti confirms an explosion near the village of Amba, 75 km west of Douentza, injuring two peacekeepers who were part of a logistical convoy en route to that region,” it tweeted. UNMISSA ...

  • India: Five IEDs recovered in Jharkhand

    April 19, 2023

    Jamshedpur: Security forces have successfully unearthed five improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a village in a Maoist-affected area of West Singhbhum. The IEDs were planted by Maoists in an attempt to disrupt the peace and security in the area. During a search on Wednesday morning by the security forces on the rough road leading from Chhotakuidas ...

  • UK: Further searches after bomb squad removes ‘suspect item’ from flat

    April 19, 2023

    Further searches are under way after a bomb squad removed a “suspect item” from a flat in Glasgow on Monday. Police were called to the scene on Petershill Road in the Springburn area of the city just after 10am on Monday, April 17. Road closures were put in place in the surrounding area and residents were ...

  • Russia says foiled attack on Crimea’s energy system

    April 19, 2023

    Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had prevented an attack on energy systems in annexed Crimea, state media reported Wednesday. An unidentified Russian-Ukrainian national was detained in the Crimean city of Kerch on suspicion of preparing to commit an act of sabotage and illegally buying and storing explosives, according to the TASS news agency. Read more… Source: ...

  • North Dakota Army National Guard Soldiers partner with Togo, Benin soldiers to counter IEDs

    April 18, 2023

    Two U.S. Army Soldiers from the North Dakota National Guard visited African countries Togo and Benin Feb. 6-17, 2023, to exchange best practices in countering improvised explosive devices with Togalese Armed Forces and Benin Armed Forces. U.S. Army Staff Sgts. Dale Burdette and Alex Radi, both members of the Jamestown, N.D. based 817th Engineer Company (Sapper), ...

  • India: Three-day training programme on emergency management begins in Visakhapatnam

    April 18, 2023

    A three-day training programme on Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) emergency management for Seaport Emergency Handlers was started at HRDC Centre of Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) here on Tuesday. The VPA, in association with the National Disaster Management Authority, is organising a three-day basic programme. Read more… Source: The Hindu