News – December 2025


  • ‘Ensuring safety at every inch’: demining effort in Armenia

    December 5, 2025

    Mines and unexploded ordnance are an inevitable consequence of armed conflict. More than 60 countries worldwide, including Armenia, must clear their territories of these hazards. In total, over 43 million square meters in Armenia require demining. This situation stems from a conflict that lasted around 35 years. The search for and neutralization of mines and other ...

  • Virginia: FBI arrests man in Jan. 6 DC pipe bomber investigation

    December 4, 2025

    The FBI arrested a Virginia man on Thursday in its almost five-year investigation into who planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot. The bureau believes the man, 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. from Woodbridge, Virginia, compiled bomb-making supplies for months before leaving the viable explosive ...

  • Florida: Brevard County Sheriff, Palm Bay Police Announce Massive Seizure of Illegal Substances, Weapons, and Explosives

    December 4, 2025

    The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, working with the Palm Bay Police Department, the DEA, ATF, and several federal task force partners, announced the arrest of 26-year-old Maxwell Horvath after a major operation uncovered an extensive cache of illegal weapons, explosive materials, and what federal authorities say is the largest seizure in the nation of a ...

  • Myanmar: World’s largest number of landmine casualties

    December 4, 2025

    Myanmar has for the second consecutive year recorded the world’s highest number of landmine casualties (2,029), which is double the total reported for the preceding year. Syria had the second highest number of casualties (1,015), followed by Afghanistan (624) and Ukraine (293). The Myanmar military continued their use of antipersonnel mines, as they have done every ...

  • Connecticut: Decomposed body and explosives found inside residence after standoff

    December 4, 2025

    A decomposed body and several explosives were discovered inside a home following an hours-long standoff with a man who had barricaded himself in the residence and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement in Connecticut, according to authorities. Stamford Police responded to the Oaklawn Avenue home on Tuesday morning after a state marshal called 911 while attempting to ...

  • SmartRayVision Announces Successful Delivery and Training of 14 Portable X-Ray Systems to the Indonesia National Police

    December 4, 2025

    Jakarta, Indonesia — SmartRayVision is proud to announce the successful sale and deployment of fourteen (14) advanced portable X-ray systems to the Indonesia National Police. This milestone further strengthens SmartRayVision’s global presence and supports ongoing efforts to enhance public safety and counter-explosive capabilities throughout Southeast Asia. As part of the project, members of the SmartRayVision team ...

  • UK: Men arrested over suspected explosives offences as major incident declared in Derby

    December 4, 2025

    A major incident has been declared and 200 homes evacuated after two men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences in Derby. Derbyshire Police carried out a warrant at a property in Vulcan Street, acting on intelligence about materials at the address. Two men, one in his 40s and another in his 50s, who are Polish ...

  • Illinois: Three explosive devices found in Rockford home

    December 4, 2025

    Rockford police said they found three explosive devices in a home Wednesday. Police responded to the home in the 1600-block of North Church Street, after being alerted to possible explosive devices there. When the bomb unit arrived, they found the three devices, which were removed and will be safely disposed of, police said. Joshua Kelce, 29, ...

  • Israel: Improvised explosive device neutralized in Rehovot industrial zone

    December 4, 2025

    Police neutralized an improvised explosive device in the Rehovot industrial zone. “Bomb disposal experts neutralized the item without damage or casualties, while conducting searches to remove any additional risk to the public. The circumstances of the incident are under investigation and it appears to be criminally motivated,” officials reported. Read more… Source: YNet News Sign up for the Counter-IED ...

  • Romania says it destroys maritime drone in Black Sea

    December 3, 2025

    The Romanian military blew up a maritime drone that was endangering navigation in the Black Sea, the Ministry of National Defence said on Wednesday, amid rising concerns about risks to shipping in the area linked to the war in Ukraine. The ministry said that the drone, which was found in an area 36 nautical miles (66 ...

  • How Kiwi soldiers are helping train Ukraine forces

    December 3, 2025

    The New Zealand Defence Force is continuing to provide training to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in counter explosive ordnance measures and drone warfare – over three and a half years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. The Defence Force said under Operation Tīeke, up to 100 personnel across land, maritime and air are deployed ...

  • Pakistan: Three police officers killed in IED blast targeting police vehicle in Dera Ismail Khan

    December 3, 2025

    Three cops, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), were martyred in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeting a police vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan on Wednesday. The spokesperson for district police, Yaqoob Zulqarnain said, told Dawn that an IED was used in the blast that took place in Paniyala area, which is in the ...

  • Philippines: Bomb threats expose critical shortage in police EOD personnel

    December 3, 2025

    A surge of bomb threats across Western Visayas has exposed a worrying security gap: the region is being protected by only 61 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel, a number police officials concede is dangerously insufficient as incidents continue to escalate. Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) director Police Brigadier General Josefino Ligan said the shortage has forced ...

  • Japan signs deal to provide $26 million to help Ukraine remove landmines

    December 3, 2025

    Japan has signed a deal to give Ukraine an aid package worth about 26 million dollars to help the country clear away landmines. In October, the Japanese government hosted an international conference in Tokyo to discuss support for landmine removal efforts in Ukraine. The government decided to provide the nation with the financial aid package during ...

  • U.S. Department of Justice: Afghan Citizen Federally Charged for Posting Threats to Build Bomb and Kill Americans

    December 2, 2025

    Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, 30, a citizen of Afghanistan residing in Fort Worth, Texas, has been federally charged for threatening to build a bomb, conduct a suicide attack, and kill Americans and others, in a video shared on TikTok, X, and Facebook. A screenshot of a social media post that shared Alokozay’s Nov. 23 statements is ...

  • Russian tanker Midvolga 2 targeted in Black Sea

    December 2, 2025

    The tanker Midvolga 2, en route from Russia to Georgia carrying a cargo of sunflower oil, came under attack 80 miles off the coast of Turkey, the country’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure reported. Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport, Rosmorrechflot, later confirmed the incident. On December 2, at 8:00 a.m. Moscow time ...

  • Bangladesh: Seven petrol bombs, four crude bombs recovered from park in Mohammadpur

    December 2, 2025

    Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have recovered seven petrol bombs, four crude bombs, and various bomb-making materials from a bush inside a park in the capital’s Mohammadpur area. The explosives were found abandoned during a special operation conducted around 10:30pm yesterday (1 December) in bushes inside Lalmatia Trikon Park, located opposite Mohammadpur Shaheed Park ...

  • Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Staff Sgt. Lucas Shappell, A Perfect Match in EOD

    December 1, 2025

    Some careers are mapped out long before they begin. For Staff Sgt. Lucas Shappell, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team Leader with the 934th CES, the path to becoming an Air Force Reserve EOD technician wasn’t planned. After six years in the Navy, Shappell thought his military career had come to an end. But in 2022, about a ...

  • Landmine casualties hit four-year high as treaty setbacks deepen

    December 1, 2025

    Civilian deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants of war have risen to their highest level in four years, according to the Landmine Monitor 2025 report launched in Geneva on Monday. It documents 6,279 casualties in 2024. Children remain especially vulnerable, particularly in conflict-affected countries where displaced families are returning to heavily contaminated areas. “Civilians ...

  • South Africa: Woman arrested with explosives intercepted on route to Hartbeespoort Dam

    December 1, 2025

    Atteridgeville SAPS has made an arrest when officers apprehended a woman with explosives travelling to Hartebeespoort. The arrest came on November 29 at around 09:00, when police on crime-prevention patrols spotted a suspicious Mercedes-Benz Sprinter travelling on the R511 in the direction of Hartbeespoort Dam. The vehicle was stopped, and the people inside were asked to step ...

  • Senegal: Damaged Turkish tanker off Dakar coast was hit by explosions

    December 1, 2025

    A Turkish-owned oil tanker that was damaged near Senegal’s coast last week was hit by four external explosions but there were no injuries or pollution, its manager said on Monday. The vessel, Mersin, was at anchor near Dakar when the four explosions occurred at 2345 GMT on November 27, resulting in seawater entering the engine room, ...

  • India: Five suspects detained after Bhubaneswar bomb attack

    December 1, 2025

    A bomb blast near Bhubaneswar’s KV-3 triggered a major probe as police and the NIA detained five suspects, recovered explosive materials, and heightened security amid rising concerns over local safety and inadequate patrolling. The Commissionerate Police-Bhubaneswar on Sunday detained five persons in connection with the bomb attack that recently shook places near Kendriya Vidyalaya-3 (KV-3) in ...

  • West Virginia: Barbour County man arrested after police find multiple explosives at his residence

    December 1, 2025

    A Barbour County man was arrested when police executed a previous warrant and found multiple explosive devices at his residence. On Sunday, around 4 p.m., the West Virginia State Police responded to a residence in Moatsville alongside the Barbour County Sheriff’s Department to execute the arrest warrant of Brian Koval, 49. Koval’s arrest warrant originally stemmed ...

  • Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention to hold its Twenty-Second Meeting of States Parties from 1 to 5 December 2025

    December 1, 2025

    The Twenty-Second Meeting of States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is being held from 1 to 5 December 2025 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. The Meeting opened at 10 a.m. on Monday, 1 December, under the Presidency of Ambassador Tomiko Ichikawa of Japan. The opening session featured a video-message from the United Nations ...