Eleven members of the Syrian Arab Army have died following an explosion at a military site in the eastern province of Deir az-Zor, according to the Ministry of Defence. The incident occurred in the town of Ayyash in western Deir az-Zor, where a weapons cache was struck, state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.
Nine additional soldiers were injured in the blast, which remains under investigation as authorities seek to determine the cause. A funeral procession was held Saturday at the National Hospital in Deir az-Zor city, where state broadcaster Al Ikhbiriya showed mourners gathered around coffins draped in Syrian flags. The broadcaster reported that the soldiers were killed while transporting heavy ammunition at the facility.
This attack marks the second deadly explosion at a Syrian military site in less than two weeks. On September 9, a blast at a temporary weapons depot in Sarmada, located in the northwestern province of Idlib, killed 14 soldiers and wounded more than 10 people, including civilians. The defence ministry assumed responsibility for that incident, stating the site was used to collect civil war-era munitions before their transfer under standard procedures.
Syrian Emergency Management Minister Raed al-Saleh acknowledged the difficulty of fully securing such locations, noting that civilians are sometimes involved in collecting abandoned munitions. Another explosion occurred on September 1 in Binnish, Idlib province, killing five people and wounding others.
Such incidents have become frequent as Syria attempts to clear vast stockpiles of weapons and munitions left behind after more than a decade of civil war.
Second blast in two weeks? Something is seriously wrong with safety protocols at these depots.
The lingering danger of old munitions is terrifying. Eleven soldiers shouldn’t die just from doing their job.