Photo: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images
Panos Moumtzis, the UN assistant secretary general and regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria Crisis, told reporters the number of unexploded devices in Raqqa, Syria, is “extreme” and that they are in “every house, every room, every inch of the city," Reuters reports.
Why it matters: Moumtzis said these unexploded devices are causing 50-70 casualties a week. Jerry Guilbert, the Deputy Director of Programs in the U.S State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, told Axios:
"The level of explosive hazard contamination in areas liberated from ISIS is the worst we’ve seen in the 20+ years of our program’s existence. The extent to which ISIS has intentionally targeted civilians and humanitarian aid workers by booby-trapping places such as homes, hospitals, and schools with IEDs isn’t something that we’ve seen before, and it speaks volumes to their truly evil nature.”