Hundreds of NATO-made mines found in Syria’s Douma
© RuptlyNATO-made mines found in Syria’s Douma
Hundreds of mines, some said to originate from NATO countries, as well as scores of mortar shells and frag grenades have been retrieved by Syrian sappers in the town of Douma. The mine-clearing effort was caught on camera.

A stunning amount of projectiles, among them land mines, hand grenades and mortar shells, were recorded strewn on the ground in Douma, in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, which was one of the Islamists' last remaining bastions in this part of Syria.

Syrian bomb disposal teams have been dealing with explosives on a day-to-day basis, having so far detected and defused a total of 1.2 thousand mines, 1.5 tons of explosive material and four thousand improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to the Russian Reconciliation Center.


The sizeable ammunition cache reportedly included land mines manufactured in some of the NATO countries, according to the Defense Ministry. The Russian military says the mine-clearing effort in Douma could last for at least three months.


Comment: The operation to fully demine the Syrian city of Douma recaptured from militants of the Jaysh al-Islam extremist group will take up to three months, the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria told reporters.
"Efforts to demine the city are underway. To date, Syrian sappers have found and deactivated 1,200 landmines, 1.5 tonnes of explosives and 4,000 improvised explosive devices. It will take up to three months to fully demine the city," the center's spokesman said, adding that the landmines that have been found, judging by the markings, were manufactured in some NATO member-countries.

The Syrian military announced earlier in April that it had fully cleared the war-ravaged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta following a two-month campaign, while more than 21,000 militants and members of their families reached a deal to relocate from the area.