Mine explosions in central Syria leave at least 10 dead

Beirut, Feb. 27, (dpa/GNA) - At least 10 civilians were killed Monday and more than a dozen wounded in two separate explosions of mines left behind by the Islamic State in central Syria, the state media and a monitoring group said. 

The civilians were killed in the vicinity of Salamiyah area in the eastern countryside of Hama, according to the state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA).  

“While a group of citizens were going to search for truffle mushrooms in an area belonging to the village of al-Mustareha in the eastern Salamiyah countryside, a mine left behind by Islamic State terrorists exploded, killing nine citizens and injuring two others,” SANA said. 

A second explosion in the same region killed one person and injured 10, the news agency added.  

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has been monitoring violence in Syria since the war started in 2011, said at least 10 were killed and 14 injured.  

According to the observatory, 42 people, including 18 children, have died this year alone as a result of detonations of explosive remnants from the war. Another 82 were wounded. 

The remains of war are spread over large geographical areas across Syria, amid the failure of organizations and local authorities to remove them, the observatory said. 

GNA