2 min read

Civil Defense workers take hands on approach in fight against unexploded cluster munitions

Civil Defense emergency responders in northern Aleppo are attempting to […]


25 October 2015

Civil Defense emergency responders in northern Aleppo are attempting to keep pace with the daily hail of cluster-munitions raining down on the region from Russian and regime warplanes, publishing pictures on Sunday of its volunteer workers disposing hundreds of unexploded anti-personnel bomblets that landed in courtyards and farms.

“Saturday night they bombed us with eight cluster bombs, and each one contains about 300 bomblets, more than 100 of which didn’t explode,” said the spokesperson for the Civil Defense in the village of Hayan, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Throughout the day on Sunday, Hayan’s Civil Defense Facebook page continued posting pictures of ongoing efforts to dispose of Russian-made anti-personnel and anti-armor cluster munitions that landed in Hayan and the neighboring village of Biyanon.

Hayan and Biyanon are located in the northern Aleppo countryside, near the rebel encircled Shiite-majority villages of Zahraa and Nubl.  

“At first, we found more than 70 cluster bombs in the houses of Hayan, including unexploded anti-personnel bombs that were removed and disposed of,” said the spokesperson.

The Civil Defense workers have become so familiar with the bomblets, says the spokesperson, “that we could start building similar bombs ourselves.”

– Photo courtesy of Civil Defense in Hayan

Share this article!