Ordnance blast kills 16 and collapses building in Syria

Ordnance from Syria’s 13-year conflict has exploded in the coastal city of Latakia, collapsing a building and killing more than a dozen people.

The paramedic group known as the White Helmets said it worked overnight into Sunday to search through debris and recovered 16 bodies, including five women and five children, and that 18 other people were injured.

The group and residents said the explosion occurred in a metal scrap storage space on the ground floor of a four-storey building.

The United Nations said in February that about 100 people have been killed from exploding ordnance during the last 13 years, adding that since the ousting of Bashar Assad in December, more than 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 Latakia.

Latakia, a key port city, and Syria’s coastal province recently witnessed a surge in violence, after gunmen loyal to Assad ambushed a security patrol. While the government’s counter-offensive, alongside allied factions, crushed the insurgency, it led to widespread destruction and numerous cases of retaliatory attacks against members of the Alawite community, which the Assad family is part of.

The clashes and revenge killings led to the deaths of more than 1,000 people.

Elsewhere, the Syrian Defence Ministry late on Sunday accused the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group of crossing the Lebanon-Syria border and killing three Syrian soldiers.

Hezbollah denied any involvement in the killing that took place near north-east Lebanon, where clashes between Syrian forces and Lebanese clans happened last month.

Local Lebanese media have reported Syrian shelling on the Lebanese border town of Al-Qasr.

“The Defence Ministry will take all the necessary measures after this dangerous escalation from the Hezbollah militia,” a statement from the ministry read.