Syria · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Explosion at Weapons Depot Near Sarmada Kills At Least 14 In Syria’s Idlib
At least 14 killed and 11 injured in explosion at a weapons warehouse near Sarmada. Health Ministry reports casualties among civilians and government personnel.
Whether the ammunition cause is confirmed.
11 of 12 outlets skipped it: idlib Internal Security forces defused a bomb elsewhere days earlier.
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صصحيفة سبق الإلكترونية
“Officials clarified that the blast was likely caused by ammunition, while rescue teams continue to search for missing persons”
Translated from the original.
Read the original ↗Al Jazeera and Reuters frame the blast cause as unclarified. صحبعة سبق and others suggest ammunition likely triggered it.
Blast near Sarmada
An explosion at a temporary depot for weapons and remnants of war near Sarmada in Syria’s Idlib province killed at least 14 people and injured 11 others, according to state television and the Idlib health department.
“At least 14 people were killed and 11 wounded on Wednesday”
Syria’s Defence Ministry said the weapons and war remnants were being stored at the site before being transported elsewhere, and that some of its personnel were among those wounded.
Civil Defence and firefighting teams were deployed to the scene, but successive explosions hampered efforts to extinguish the blaze as thick smoke billowed from the site for hours.
Emergency teams searched for survivors trapped under the rubble, and an Associated Press photographer reported seeing bodies recovered at the scene.
The blast was described as the second fatal incident of its kind in Idlib province this month, after a vehicle carrying ammunition exploded in Binnish on September 1, killing five people and wounding others, according to Syrian state media.
Unclear cause, delayed response
Authorities have not clarified what caused the initial explosion, and Reuters reported that they had not said what caused it.R
DW said the explosion in an area full of volatile materials led to secondary explosions and fires that hampered the emergency response, while smoke billowed from the blast site for some time on Wednesday.
The Idlib health department gave a preliminary count, stating, "registered 14 killed and 11 injured in a preliminary count," as rescuers continued searching.
In a separate account, Identidad Correntina said at least four people were killed and ten were injured by an explosion recorded on the outskirts of Sarmada, citing an initial toll provided by Idlib authorities.
Both accounts placed the detonation at a temporary facility intended to gather weapons and explosive remnants near Sarmada, but they diverged on the casualty totals.
Aftermath and next incidents
The blast site was described as a temporary storage for collecting weapons and war remnants near Sarmada, with Syria’s Defence Ministry saying the materials were being stored before transport elsewhere.
“secondary explosions hampered firefighting teams from extinguishing the fires”
Reuters reported that Civil Defence and firefighting teams were deployed and that successive explosions hampered efforts to extinguish the blaze as thick smoke billowed from the site for hours.R
The incident came after another deadly blast in Idlib province on September 1, when a vehicle carrying ammunition exploded in Binnish, killing five people and wounding others, according to Syrian state media.
Al Jazeera also reported that emergency teams were immediately dispatched after the explosion at Burj al-Nimra village in northern Idlib’s countryside, but that secondary explosions hampered firefighting teams from extinguishing the fires.
With authorities still not clarifying the cause, the sources framed the event as part of a continuing pattern of dangerous weapons remnants in a region that has only recently emerged from more than 10 years of war.