KOBANE - An estimated 40 people have been killed by mines and booby traps in Kobane in the two months since Kurdish forces evicted ISIS from the city in Syria’s Kurdish region (Rojava), a local official told Rudaw.
“Since the day we started to clean up Kobane and nearby areas at least 40 people have been killed and dozens wounded by ISIS mines,” Nasan Ahmed, health minister of the Kobane canton, said Saturday.
He appealed for immediate international help to clean up Kobane from the huge numbers of mines and booby traps planted by ISIS on roads as well as in abandoned schools and homes.
Much of Kobane was turned to rubble since ISIS escalated an offensive in September against the city. Residents fled in huge numbers, mostly to Turkey and the Kurdistan Region, as Kurdish forces stood up to an ISIS siege that ended after months of fighting that included near-daily air raids by coalition forces. Kurdish forces declared the city liberated on January 26.
Authorities in Kobane had warned residents not to return until the city had been cleared of ordnance, but many former residents have been ignoring that advice and returning in large numbers.
Mustafa Anifi, a member of Kurdish National Council (KNC) in Syria, has warned returnees to stay away from dead ISIS bodies because many are booby trapped.
“Don’t touch dead ISIS bodies, most of them are booby trapped and it is the responsibility of the authorities to take care of the matter, not civilians,” he said.
Since liberation, efforts have been ongoing by Kurds to rebuild Kobane, which had a pre-war population of some 200,000 residents.
The city has become a symbol of Kurdish resistance, after a combined force of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and some 150 Peshmerga troops – backed by coalition air power – forced ISIS to retreat and abandon efforts of capturing the city.
