The IEDs have been found disguised in ordinary objects in schools, homes, and on roads. “ISIS mined virtually everything including, quite literally, the kitchen sink before they left,” said HRW’s deputy emergencies director Ole Solvang.
Residents told HRW that explosives were found “placed in doorways and windows, under mattresses and piles of shoes, in refrigerators and bags of clothes, and in television sets and kitchen sink taps,” reads the report published Wednesday.
“Most of the mines appeared to be victim-activated and therefore banned under international law.”
Researchers from Human Rights Watch spent five days in Manbij in early October and were able to document the deaths of 69 civilians, including 19 children, killed by ISIS IEDs after the liberation of the city. “The total is most likely much higher,” they state, as they were not able to gather information from all neighbourhoods and villages.
The monitoring group warned that similar threats of IEDs will exist as local and international forces battle to retake more territory from the group in both Syria and Iraq.
Clearing liberated villages of IEDs and ensuring security of persons returning to their homes has hindered internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are eager to leave displacement camps and improvised dwellings and resume their lives in their own homes.
Among Peshmerga forces, the majority of casualties have been from IEDs.
Manbij was liberated by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in August.
