BEIRUT (AP) – Improvised land mines planted by the Islamic State group have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, in a town recently freed of the militants in northern Syria, a leading human rights group said Wednesday.
Civilians returning to the town of Manbij since it was liberated from the extremists in August have reported finding explosive devices placed in doorways and windows, under mattresses and piles of shoes, in refrigerators and bags of clothes and in television sets, Human Rights Watch said in a report based on a five-day investigation in the town.
“ISIS mined virtually everything including, quite literally, the kitchen sink before they left,” said Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.
He said the number of victims is likely to increase as more people return to their homes.
The Islamic State group has typically laid out hundreds of land mines and booby traps designed to kill civilians before retreating from towns and cities across areas in Iraq, including the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and also in the town of Kobani in Syria.