News – July 2023

July 23, 2023

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have said 665 militant attacks, including 15 suicide bombings, were reported in the province between June 18, 2022, and June 18, 2023. They also reported 382 gun attacks, 107 grenade blasts, 145 IED explosions, 15 rocket and missile hits, and two vehicle-borne IED attacks in the province during that period. According to ...

July 23, 2023

All sorts of munitions have been dropped from drones ranging from hand grenades to Molotov balloons to mortar rounds and even blocks of explosive. In this article/video, the authors look at a couple of interesting examples of improvised munitions. In early May an interesting short video was shared by a Ukrainian combatant showing a Fanta soft ...

July 22, 2023

Ukrainian troops have been on exercises in the Scottish Highlands learning how to disarm and defuse Russian bombs, booby traps and mines. Royal Navy divers and experts have been training their Ukrainian counterparts on finding and neutralising explosive devices in Loch Ewe in Wester Ross. The programme included clearing deep water shipping lanes and rendering beaches ...

July 22, 2023

Four Izvestiya and RIA Novosti reporters were injured in a Ukrainian cluster munitions strike at the Zaporozhye Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday, adding that RIA Novosti reporter Rostislav Zhuravlyov died during evacuation. “At about 12:00 on July 22, 2023, Ukrainian forces carried out an artillery strike at a group of Izvestia and RIA Novosti ...

July 22, 2023

In a year and a half of conflict, land mines — along with unexploded bombs, artillery shells and other deadly byproducts of war — have contaminated a swath of Ukraine roughly the size of Florida or Uruguay. It has become the world’s most mined country. The transformation of Ukraine’s heartland into patches of wasteland riddled with ...

July 21, 2023

An Israeli was wounded by an IED in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank. The man was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Rescue Without Borders. On Thursday night, an Israeli man was severely wounded by a stabbing attack in Jerusalem that was being treated as a terror incident ...

July 21, 2023

Two bottles filled with wires that were discovered behind the rear tyre of lawyer Siti Kasim’s car are believed to be improvised explosive devices (IED), says Asst Comm Amihizam Abdul Shukor. The Brickfields OCPD said police received the distress call at 12.58pm. “We immediately dispatched the Bomb Squad while the Fire and Rescue Department was also ...

July 21, 2023

As improvised explosive devices (IEDs) grow more lethal with military-grade explosives and high-impact design and drones become the favoured mode for Pakistan-based elements to smuggle them into Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, the National Security Guard (NSG) and Indian Army personnel too are upgrading their bomb handling and disposal skills by training with the US ...

July 20, 2023

The governments of the United States of America and Norway have a continuing long-term commitment to supporting the unexploded ordnance (UXO) sector in Laos, with a combined total of over US$20.8 million committed to Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to support survey and clearance operations in four southern provinces. Under the MOU, Norwegian People’s Aid will increase ...

July 20, 2023

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have carried out additional inspections and walkdowns at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) over the past week – so far without observing any heavy military equipment, explosives or mines – but they are still awaiting access to the rooftops of the reactor buildings, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi ...

July 20, 2023

At least nine people have been killed and 16 injured after an explosive device accidentally detonated in a field in conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said on Thursday. The blast occurred on Wednesday evening in Lubwe Sud in North Kivu province’s Rutshuru territory. Justin Mwangaza, a local civil-society figure, told AFP that a civilian ...

July 19, 2023

The government’s strategic policy in the seventh mandate is to clear all landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) remaining on Cambodian soil, said Ly Thuch, first vice-president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). Thuch noted that the land at risk spans an area of 1,817sq km,equivalent to 12,072 minefields. These include a mine ...

July 19, 2023

Commander Northwestern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Nishantha Peiris on 18th July 2023 presided over the insignia pinning and certificate awarding ceremony of the Bomb Disposal Qualifying Course conducted by the Sri Lanka Navy’s Bomb Disposal Training School in Maho. The event saw 26 naval personnel were pinned with the Bomb Disposal Insignia and awarded with certificates ...

July 19, 2023

At least 10 persons includ­ing seven security person­nel were wounded when a suicide car bomber targeted the vehicle of Frontier Corps at the posh Hayatabad Town­ship on Tuesday. The blast was a suicide attack and its target was the FC convoy, which was pass­ing through the Hayatabad Township, Superintendent of Police Peshawar Cantt, Waqas Rafiq, told ...

July 19, 2023

Nepal Army’s bomb disposal squad defused an IED in Sinamangal of Kathmandu on Wednesday. The IED was not a bomb said Nepal Army. Krishna Prasad Bhandari, information officer of the Nepali Army, informed that the wires were found to be attached to the Nokia mobile and were wrapped with black tape to make it look like ...

July 19, 2023

Mine-clearing equipment given to Ukrainian forces by the West is “ineffective” because it is noisy, large, and easy to strike, according to a commander speaking The Washington Post. Officers told the publication that the Ukrainian military had encountered minefields between three and ten miles deep, laid with anti-tank and tripwired anti-personnel mines, in their counteroffensive to ...

July 17, 2023

On a spring morning near the town of Aarab el-Louaizeh in southern Lebanon, 39-year-old Zeinab Hashem sported an unconventional outfit. In a heavy vest, helmet, and visor that chafed against her skin in the warm weather, Hashem slowly swung a metal detector to survey the few steps of dirt ground ahead of her before declaring ...

July 17, 2023

Al Shabaab militants are recruiting foreigners from neighbouring countries, as fewer Kenyans are joining, security officials have said. Two Tanzanians were arrested in Garissa last Wednesday, while on their way to join the al Shabaab terror group in Somalia. It was the third such arrest of foreign would-be recruits in a month. Read more… Source: The Star  

July 17, 2023

The AAI inaugurates training on CBRN emergencies at the Chennai airport on Monday. A Training of Trainers (ToT) program was organised at Chennai International Airport by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in association with AAI to enhance the preparedness of Airport Emergency Handlers to respond to CBRN emergencies, encompassing threats emanating from the use of Chemical, ...

July 17, 2023

The top military leadership of Pakistan and neighboring Iran agreed to step up cooperation and intelligence sharing and take “effective actions” to prevent attacks by separatist militants along their porous border, Pakistani officials said Monday. The agreement was reached during a visit by Pakistan’s powerful army chief Gen. Asim Munir to Tehran over the weekend, officials ...

July 17, 2023

Twin explosions have damaged the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, killing two people and closing the main conduit for Russian road traffic to the annexed peninsula. The heavily guarded road and rail link is among the Kremlin’s most important and high-prestige infrastructure projects, and the only overland link that goes directly from Russia to ...

July 17, 2023

Security forces on Monday found two improvised explosive devices in the Handwara forests in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. “Based on a specific information, Army along with Police launched a well-coordinated search and destruction operation at Wodhpura Forest in the wee hours. In the joint operation, two IEDs — weighing approximately five kilograms ...

July 17, 2023

It is a known piece of historical trivia that for a time during the Second World War, Malta was the most bombed place on the planet. That’s evidenced by the fact that right up to this very day, bombs from back then continue to be unearthed. But no bomb dropped during the war came bigger than ...

July 16, 2023

South Korea will supply Ukraine with more mine detectors and demining equipment as part of its assistance package for the war-torn nation, a presidential official said Sunday. The initiative is made up of nine pillars — three for each type of assistance — including the supply of additional safety equipment, according to Principal Deputy National Security ...