Amidst the debris..

© Screengrab from Youtube video.
Explosion of an ammuntion storage site in Homs, August 2013
The limited reporting from Syria has made getting a complete overview of uncontrolled munitions
explosions impossible. The most well reported incident took place in Homs in August 2013, when
rebels shelled a SAA weapons depot in the southern area of Wadi Al-Dahab (see case stuy
Homs). This resulted in a huge explosion of what may have been a missile storage facility but
which also contained other types of ammunition. The blast is reported to have killed 40 people
and wounded many more. The facility was situated adjacent to a civilian neighbourhood, and
may have resulted in wide-spread UXO contamination. A similar explosion occurred in the same
area in March 2015, and reportedly involving Grad missiles and other munition types 191 .
Less widely reported was an incident that took place in December 2013, at an ammunition storage
site near Aleppo International Airport. Rebel missile attacks were also reported on SAA ammunition
depots near Latakia 192 . In 2013 in Damascus, the Israeli Air Force bombed a government missile
storage site near Damascus that the Israelis claimed was a chemical weapons research plant 193 .
Dozens more similar attacks on ammunition storage areas are likely to have taken place during the
conflict but without more comprehensive reporting determining their locations and any subsequent
health or environmental risks they may pose is impossible.
Military scrap metal
Years of fighting in Syria have left many cities and towns littered with damaged and
destroyed military hardware, including tanks and armoured vehicles. When not taken by the
rebels or government for spares or repair, these objects may be stripped for valuable metals
and equipment, later to be transported to informal scrap metal sites for further processing. The
56 PAX ! Amidst the debris...