(): Ordnance from Syria’s 13-year conflict exploded in the coastal city of Lattakia, collapsing a building and killing more than a dozen people, the Syrian Civil Defence said on Sunday.
The paramedic group, known as the White Helmets, said it worked overnight, searching through debris and recovered 16 bodies, including five women and five children, and that 18 others were injured.
The group and residents said the explosion occurred in a metal scrap storage space on the ground floor of the four-story building. The United Nations said in February that about a hundred have been killed from exploding ordnance during the last 13 years, adding that since the ouster of Bashar Assad in December, over 1,400 unexploded devices across Syria have been safely disposed of and 138 minefields and contaminated areas identified in Idleb, Aleppo, Hama, Deir-ez-Zor and Lattakia. Lattakia, a key port city, and Syria’s coastal province recently witnessed a surge in violence, after gunmen loyal to Assad ambushed a security patrol.
