Syria · updated 3h ago · 3 min read
Syrian Defense Ministry Says Explosion Kills 11 Soldiers At Army Site In Ayyash, Deir Ez-Zor
Eleven soldiers killed in explosion at army site in Ayyash area west of Deir Ezzor. Cause and circumstances of the blast are under investigation by authorities.
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Some reports stress interim figures and missing persons, others give final deaths.
11 soldiers killed in blast
Syrian authorities said an explosion at an army site in the Ayyash area west of Deir ez-Zor province killed 11 soldiers, and the defense ministry held a funeral procession for the dead at the National Hospital in Deir ez-Zor city.
“The Syrian Defense Ministry buried today, Saturday, 11 soldiers”
Al Jazeera Net reported that the Syrian Defense Ministry buried the 11 soldiers who died after an explosion occurred yesterday at one of the army’s sites in the Ayaş area, west of Deir ez-Zor governorate, and said the causes and results were being verified without announcing a casualty toll.
Anadolu Ajansı said the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), citing the ministry, reported that the soldiers’ procession was set out from the National Hospital in Deir ez-Zor city, while authorities had not disclosed the cause or circumstances of the blast.
The same Anadolu Ajansı account said the ministry’s Media and Communications Department announced on Friday that an explosion had occurred at one of the army’s sites in the Ayyash area west of Deir ez-Zor and that authorities were investigating the causes and assessing the consequences without providing a casualty toll.
Investigation and earlier tolls
While the Deir ez-Zor blast was under investigation, Anadolu Ajansı reported that state-run Alikhbariah TV said ambulances and civil defense teams had been dispatched and that the nature of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Kurdistan24 said six bodies were recovered and nine people were wounded after an explosion tore through a weapons depot at a Syrian army position west of Deir ez-Zor, with specialized teams continuing searching for people reported missing.K
Kurdistan24 also noted that an earlier account from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 Defense Ministry personnel had been killed or wounded in the ammunition depot explosion, while the governorate’s subsequent statement provided the more specific toll of six bodies recovered and nine people injured.K
Rudaw described the funeral procession as held at the National Hospital in Deir ez-Zor city and said the defense ministry had not disclosed what caused the explosion, as the blast came “just 10 days after an explosion” near Sarmada in Idlib that killed 14 defense ministry personnel and wounded more than 10 others.
Pattern of depot blasts
Al Jazeera Net linked the Deir ez-Zor weapons depot explosion to repeated blasts in ammunition depots across Syria, citing SANA’s account that defective ammunition exploded on September 12 in a remote depot in the town of al-Dreir near the eastern countryside of Damascus with no material losses or injuries reported.
“defective ammunition exploded on September 12”
The same Al Jazeera Net article said an explosion in a depot for weapons and ammunition near al-Sarmada in Idlib countryside on the 9th of the same month killed 14 and wounded 11, and it added that on September 1 a vehicle loaded with ammunition in the city of Benish in Idlib countryside killed five people and injured others.
Al Jazeera Net quoted military affairs researcher Nawar Shaaban Qubaqibo saying, “But today we deal with types and quantities of ammunition that require precision in storage, transport, monitoring, inspection, and periodic reports on their technical state.”
Rudaw framed the broader risk by saying Syria remains littered with weapons, ammunition and unexploded ordnance after 15 years of conflict, posing an enduring threat to civilians and security personnel even after the December 2024 fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.