Landmine kills four children from same family in Syria

Ordnance went off in an unfinished house near Idlib that the displaced family had moved into two weeks before the blast

Mourners bury the four siblings at a graveyard in the Syrian town of Binnish on Monday. AFP

Four children from the same family were killed after a landmine exploded in an abandoned apartment in a rebel-held town in northern Syria on Monday.

The displaced family moved into the unfinished house in Binnish, near the city of Idlib, two weeks ago, their uncle Abu Dahham Al Muhammad told AFP.

The brothers were killed instantly by the blast, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defence, also known as White Helmets, said. Their bodies were taken a nearby morgue.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that four siblings had been killed.

It said the building where the explosives went off had been used for years by families displaced by Syria’s 11-year civil war.

The Observatory, which documents Syria’s conflict, said 176 people, including 10 women and 91 children, have been killed by unexploded ordnance throughout Syria this year.

The conflict that began in March 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million. It is not uncommon for booby traps and mines to explode and kill or maim people in different parts of Syria.

Over the past few years, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have gained control of much of the country with the help of his main backers Russia and Iran.

Binnish is in the last remaining rebel stronghold in north-west Syria.