News – January 2026

January 10, 2026

Finland’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention will take effect on 10 January. Finland remains committed to the humanitarian objectives of the Ottawa Convention. Finland’s decision to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention was based on an assessment of Finland’s defence needs in the deteriorated security environment. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has profoundly changed ...

January 10, 2026

The US carried out large-scale strikes against ISIS targets in Syria on Saturday tied to an ongoing retaliatory campaign dubbed “Operation Hawkeye Strike.” “Today, at approximately 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, alongside partner forces, conducted large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets across Syria,” US Central Command said in a release posted ...

January 10, 2026

The Indian Army’s Central Command conducted a Counter IED training for Railway Protection Force personnel and constables from Eastern Central Railway over two days, an official said on Saturday. “The participants were introduced to IED mechanisms through realistic field-style training and were familiarised with modern equipment, including bomb suits, IR cameras, detection systems and specialised search ...

January 9, 2026

A Ukrainian company contracted to manufacture critically needed land- and anti-personnel mines for the front pocketed nearly Hr.3 billion ($69.8 million) in taxpayer money and instead sent small volumes of munitions that frequently failed to function and sometimes blew up as troops handled them, a senior Kyiv law enforcement official announced Friday. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan ...

January 9, 2026

Police have arrested a man in connection with an explosive device discovered at a public restroom on Oregon’s North Coast last September. Oregon State Police arrested James Mason Liggett, 52, of St. Helens in Grants Pass on Sunday. Liggett was wanted on charges of attempted murder, attempted assault in the first and second degree, first degree ...

January 9, 2026

Britain said it was allocating 200 million pounds ($270 million) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, after pledging its soldiers this week to a multinational force for the country in the event of a ceasefire. Visiting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday, British defence minister John Healey said the money would ...

January 9, 2026

Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled a significant security innovation on Friday, inaugurating a national IED data management platform crafted by the NSG to improve counter-terrorism efforts. Through a video conferencing link, Shah officially launched the system, which is stationed at the NSG’s Manesar garrison. This platform aims to centralize the collection and analysis of IED ...

January 8, 2026

The Syrian army launched new strikes in parts of Aleppo on Thursday after ordering residents to evacuate, accusing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of using Kurdish-majority areas to launch attacks as clashes entered a third day. The army released more than seven maps identifying areas it said would be targeted in strikes, urging residents to ...

January 8, 2026

Mogadishu’s first line of defense against the next militant attack on Somalia ’s capital ranges from machine gunners in pick-up trucks to young men in plainclothes manning checkpoints. One of the leaders is Abdikani Ali Mohamed, a teenage-faced colonel whose authority has grown in the city as Somalia’s government tries to dismantle al-Shabab networks. Mohamed’s operatives ...

January 8, 2026

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) acknowledged Belgium’s ongoing financial assistance for the mission in Iraq. According to a statement released by the UNMAS, the contribution improves cooperative efforts with the Iraqi government and other partners to protect people from explosive ordnance and to provide safe and long-term access to land and key services for ...

January 8, 2026

A man has been killed in a crude bomb explosion in Zajira Upazila of Shariatpur. Police believe the man died while making a crude bomb when it exploded early Thursday in the Mulai Beparikandi area of Bilaspur Union. The victim has been identified as Sohan Bepari, 32, son of Delwar Bepari of the nearby Satgariya Kandi ...

January 8, 2026

A would-be robber who blew up a cash machine with explosives has been jailed for eight years, police have said. Detectives investigating the attempted theft of cash from an ATM in Powburn, Northumberland, in May found explosive devices when they raided Kristopher Follos’s home. Dramatic CCTV images showed the 45-year-old trying to blast his way into ...

January 8, 2026

China has donated various equipment to support Cambodia’s demining efforts, in the form of metal detectors, tools, equipment and vehicles that will aid the Kingdom’s goal of becoming landmine free. During a ceremony on January 8, Ly Thuch, First Vice-President of Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA), and Wang Winpin, Chinese ambassador in Cambodia, attended a ceremony ...

January 7, 2026

A man has been injured in a landmine incident in Azerbaijan’s Jabrayil district, officials have said. The explosion occurred on January 7 in the village of Mehdili, in territory recaptured by Azerbaijan following years of occupation. According to the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), the blast happened while a 40-year-old employee of a private ...

January 7, 2026

In 2026, humanitarian demining of Ukraine’s deoccupied territories will be planned using a new approach – leveraging modern digital solutions. This was discussed at the final meeting of the National Mine Action Authority, chaired by Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Mykola Shevtsov. A key innovation was the presentation of a digital platform developed ...

January 7, 2026

BEIRUT, Jan. 7 — A total of 69 members of the 24th Chinese peacekeeping force to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) successfully passed the assessment by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and obtained the UN mine clearance and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) qualifications on January 5, 2026. The mine clearance and ...

January 7, 2026

The Defense Ministry says it has expanded work on a new security barrier along the Jordanian border, with authorities destroying hundreds of old landmines in the area. According to the ministry, the Mine and Unexploded Ordnance Clearance Authority carried out controlled detonations yesterday to clear three minefields, destroying some 500 anti-tank mines laid in the area ...

January 6, 2026

Navy SEAL trainees and other sailors hoping to join one of a handful of hard-charging Navy jobs have to pass many brutal fitness tests. But beginning this year, fully qualified SEALs and others in combat roles must now pass a specific, Navy-wide Combat Fitness Test every year to keep those jobs. Sailors in the Navy’s four ...

January 6, 2026

The former nazim of Bannu district’s Domel tehsil, Fida Muhammad Khan Wazir, was injured in a bomb blast outside his office on Tuesday. Asif Hassan, the Bannu police spokesperson, confirmed the incident to Dawn, saying that a pre-installed improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at the office gate in the Domel Bazaar area. Soon after it was ...

January 6, 2026

Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD – Researchers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) have successfully transitioned a heat-based decontamination project to a Program of Record, marking the next step in getting contaminated sensitive equipment back into warfighter hands faster. The Chemical Hot Air Decontamination (CHAD) project, funded by the Defense ...

January 6, 2026

Train services heading out of Birmingham have been disrupted following the discovery of a ‘wartime bomb’ near the railway, impacting CrossCountry services, according to traffic monitoring service Inrix. West Midlands Police has confirmed that an old mortar device has been found at Duddeston Mill Trading Estate in Washwood Heath. An evacuation has been carried out, with a ...

January 6, 2026

Bomb disposal teams say they have found more than 120 shells from the recent Thai-Cambodian border conflict, mostly in rubber plantations, as operations continue to make agricultural areas safe in Ban Kruat district of this northeastern border province. The shells were remnants of clashes along the frontier between Dec 7 and 27, when a ceasefire was ...

January 6, 2026

A far-left group claimed responsibility for an arson attack on Berlin’s power grid, causing a blackout for tens of thousands of households. Repairs are expected by Thursday. German federal prosecutors on Tuesday launched an investigation on terrorism charges into an arson attack on high-voltage cables that caused a power blackout impacting 45,000 Berlin households. The service ...

January 6, 2026

Nine soldiers have been reported killed after an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated along the Maiduguri–Gubio road in Borno State. Military and Civilian Joint Task Force sources confirmed the incident in Maiduguri yesterday, saying preliminary investigations showed the explosive was planted overnight by Boko Haram insurgents. The troops were travelling from Maiduguri through Gubio town for ...