Syria: Four Children Killed by Landmines in Less than a Week

DAMASCUS (November 10, 2026) – Save the Children is reiterating its call for authorities to clear unexploded ordnances and support recovery after four children were killed by landmines in Syria in one week.^[1]

Landmines and unexploded ordnances have become one of the gravest threats to children across Syria. The UN said in September that 269 children had been killed and 1,616 injured by landmines and unexploded ordnances since December 2024, when conflict ended after 14 years and families started returning home.  

Three children, aged between 8 and 12, were killed by an explosion while herding sheep on Monday, according to local news reports. Last week, a child was killed and 14 people were injured at a school in Hasakah, according to local media.

Yaser*, 15, who lost a finger and got shrapnel in his eye due to an unexploded ordnance injury, said: "I saw something that looked like a pen. I didn't know what it was. I lifted it and it exploded. I didn't feel pain at the beginning, but I then looked at my hand and saw my pinkie finger wasn't there. I then started screaming and running."  

He added that his eye is painful, he has blurred vision, and he is afraid of losing his sight.  

Save the Children is supporting Yaser and his family in its child protection case management system, and with clothes, hygiene supplies and emergency cash assistance. Save the Children will also support with vocational training.

Jeremy Stoner, Acting Country Director for Save the Children in Syria, said:  

"In Syria, when a child leaves their home, their parents often fear for their life. Schools, which are protected under international law, are no longer safe, as we saw in Hasakah last week. Meanwhile children who have been forced out of school and into work just to support their families do so at their own peril. Others who seek a brief respite through play pick up what they think is a toy or something to kick around, only to have their life shattered.”  

“Any child killed is one too many. But the fact that hundreds have lost their lives to landmines in less than two years should be shaking up the world to intervene and support clearance and recovery. We need to see a huge shift – it is the only way to support children and families to be safe and to recover from a conflict that has already taken so much from them.”  

Save the Children is calling on national authorities to redouble efforts to clear existing mines and unexploded ordnance and for international donors to support the scale-up and provision of technical equipment to mark out and clear unexploded ordnance.  

We are also calling for increased funding for victims of assistance and to scale up pediatric blast injury training, resource prosthetics, pain management and physiotherapy, mental health support, and inclusive education to meet children’s lifelong recovery needs.  

Save the Children has been working in Syria since 2012, reaching over five million beneficiaries, including more than three million children across the country. Through our education response, we worked with 11 local partners to reach over 125,000 children and help to rehabilitate 70 schools across the country.  

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[1] Landmine blast kills three children near Syria’s Palmyra

[2] Palmyra Region: More Than Half a Million Mines Scattered Across Syrian Desert | Welat TV