Syria: Expert warns of ‘massive’ risk from unexploded ordnance

The extent of unexploded ordnance littering Syria will be “massive” and poses a particular threat to children returning to the country, a landmine-clearing leader has warned. Since the fall of the Assad regime last weekend, the Halo Trust has seen Read More …

Declassified satellite photos reveal impacts of Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped more than 8 million tons of bombs and sprayed 74 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Nearly 50 years after the war’s end, the deadly Read More …

Leveraging new technology for a mine-free future

The devastating legacy of armed conflict – often marked by the indiscriminate use of landmines, improvised explosive devices and other explosive ordnance – poses a significant humanitarian challenge. Innovation in mine action With over 25 years of experience, UNOPS has Read More …

Ukraine: Explosives technicians neutralize unexploded warhead of Kh-101 missile in Chernivtsi region

Explosives technicians from Ukraine’s National Police have neutralized an unexploded warhead from a Russian Kh-101 missile in the southwestern Chernivtsi region. Law enforcement officers discovered the unexploded warhead of the missile outside a populated area in the Dnistrovskyi district. Bomb Read More …

Lebanon: Deminers back in action as critical task awaits in southern Lebanon

Despite the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, most of the Lebanese people displaced over the past three months have already started returning to their homes. However, for most, it is not a happy homecoming. According to the World Bank, Read More …

Children at Risk: The Dangerous Impacts of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas

Conflicts across the globe illustrate the devastating humanitarian consequences when urban areas become theatres of war. The use of explosive weapons in these environments carries numerous implications for civilians, including children. What is being done at the international level, and Read More …

Demining Ukraine’s Farmland: Progress, Adaptation, and Needs

More than one thousand days into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination on Ukrainian farmland remains a complex and pervasive challenge for Ukraine’s farmers and government, its allies, and the global mine action Read More …

UK: Unexploded ordnance made safe in Portsmouth

A piece of unexploded ordnance that led to buildings along a seafront being evacuated has been safely removed. Cordons were put in place in the Pier Road area of in Southsea after police were called at 09:37 GMT. A spokesperson Read More …

Japan steps up WWII bomb disposal after recent discoveries near airfields, ports

Japanese divers working magnetic surveys for the government at two sites on Okinawa discovered 20 pieces of unexploded ordnance believed to be left over from World War II. Most recently, divers found a 5-inch shell on Nov. 26 in 52-foot Read More …

An autonomous microbial sensor enables long-term detection of TNT explosive in natural soil

Engineered microbes can sense target chemicals and respond with programmed actions, using cell sensors to detect specific chemicals and genetic circuits to convert regulatory signals into observable outcomes1,2,3. Microbial sensors have the potential to carry out autonomous, long-term environmental monitoring Read More …

Cross-Border Humanitarian Demining

This guide is intended to advance the clearance of landmines from border areas when there is political will to do so. More specifically, it is meant inform affected states, as well as donor states, of some of the various approaches Read More …

Ukraine: Bomb disposal experts discover wreckage from Russian cruise missile in Kyiv

Bomb disposal experts from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) have discovered wreckage from a Russian Kh-55 cruise missile in one of Kyiv’s districts. Emergency workers note that although wreckage did not pose a direct threat to the population, it could Read More …

Ontario: Explosives disposal taking place this week at CFB Borden

CFB BORDEN — The Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot (CFAD) Angus will be hosting Exercise Cunning Pine, an annual explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training exercise at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Borden from Nov. 26 to Nov. 28, 2024. This important training Read More …

California: Explosives found in Putah Creek Canal

Just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, workers cleaning out the Putah Creek Canal between Martin Road and Hilborn Road located what appeared to be a smoke grenade and fragmentary grenade. Officers responded to the scene and called Travis Air Force Base’s Read More …

Netherlands: World War II bombs safely neutralized near Moordrecht

Two unexploded World War II aircraft bombs were safely neutralized overnight from Saturday to Sunday near Moordrecht in South Holland, the municipality of Zuidplas reported. The first bomb was rendered safe at approximately 2:15 a.m. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service Read More …

Iraq: Bomb squad dismantles 27 war remnants in Diyala

Ministry of Interior’s Bomb Squad announced on Saturday that it had successfully neutralized 27 war remnants in Diyala province. In a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), the ministry said that IED technicians in the Kusayrin area of Read More …

Florida: 9th CES EOD conducts munitions disposal

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – The 9th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight will perform a routine munition disposal on Range C-62 Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Residents in the Mossy Head and the north Read More …

UNIFIL Statement: Artillery Shell Hits UNIFIL Sector West Headquarters

Shama (Lebanon), 15 November 2024 – This afternoon, a 155mm live artillery shell hit UNP 2-3, UNIFIL West Sector headquarters in Shama. The shell did not detonate and Italian bomb disposal experts swiftly secured the area, removed the ordnance, and Read More …

Israel: Rocket with standard explosive located near Ben Gurion International Airport

A rocket-like object was located, for the first time, in the village of Budrus, several kilometers from Ben Gurion International Airport, containing a standard, not improvised, explosive, that terrorists planned to fire from Judea and Samaria towards the center of Read More …

Japanese troops to defuse unexploded WWII bombs found near commercial airport

Japanese ordnance disposal experts plan to defuse two suspected World War II-era bombs found last month on Miyakojima, a popular tourist spot 170 miles southwest of Okinawa. Soldiers with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit expect Read More …