ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least four people, including two children, were killed and five others injured in an explosion on the outskirts of Syria’s northwestern Idlib city on Thursday, according to state media. While initial reports described the site of the explosion as a “residential building,” local authorities told Rudaw the explosion occurred at a warehouse storing “war remnants.”
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) cited the health ministry, reporting that “four people, including two children, were killed and five others, including one child, were injured in an explosion that occurred this morning in a residential building on the outskirts of Idlib city.”
SANA added that “authorities are still investigating the cause of the blast.” Syrian Civil Defense teams immediately launched rescue operations and extinguished fires sparked by the explosion. “They are on alert to secure the site and prevent the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings,” the agency noted.
Meanwhile, local authorities in Idlib told Rudaw that the explosion occurred in an arms depot.
Abed Kontar, director of media relations in Idlib province, affiliated with the Syrian information ministry, said the blast took place at an “ammunition and war remnants warehouse,” adding that “it was not the result of an aerial attack.”
“There was no aviation in the area and no sound of missiles was heard," Kontar said, suggesting that "the explosion was likely caused by high temperatures and poor storage conditions.”
He also stated that “the identities of the deceased had not yet been confirmed,” and it remains unclear “whether they were civilians or military personnel.”
For its part, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, reported on Thursday that “several violent explosions” rocked a “warehouse and headquarters for non-Syrian foreign fighters” in the farmlands west of Idlib.
According to SOHR, the incident “resulted in four deaths and five injuries among those fighters.”
The monitor added that the explosions “coincided with drone activity in the area” but did not specify who the drone belonged to.
This latest incident follows a similar explosion in late July, when “a series of blasts inside a warehouse belonging to the ‘Turkistan Islamic Party’” in northern Idlib “resulting in 12 deaths” and “107 civilian injuries, with unconfirmed reports of casualties among Turkistan nationals whose fate was being kept quiet.”
Following a swift offensive in early December, a coalition of opposition groups, led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham - then-headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa - toppled the regime of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In late January, Sharaa was appointed Syria’s interim president.
Since then, explosions at “war remnants depots” and incidents involving unexploded ordnance have emerged as a major cause of casualties, particularly in Idlib province.
Abdallah Salam contributed to this report.
