Months before an explosion rocked the small Syrian village of al-Nayrab, residents had pleaded with the government to secure a nearby military base filled with warheads, rockets and other weaponry.
After rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December, government soldiers fled the small base near Aleppo, Syria’s capital, leaving unsecured weapons behind. In the months that followed, children played near the explosives, while shepherds and thieves looking for scrap copper would walk through the base and sometimes tamper with the weaponry, two residents told The New York Times.
“I started hearing a crackling sound from the base and two successive explosions,” Nasr Handawi, a grain merchant and father of nine who lives in al-Nayrab, said of the blast on July 11. It injured 14 people and damaged many homes in the village, according to the provincial government.
“Within two minutes, a fire broke out,” he added. “I ran down immediately from the second floor to grab my wife and children and escape. Then the explosion happened.”
At least five other mysterious explosions at military bases and weapons storage sites this month have caused deaths and injuries. They have also raised questions about whether large caches of weapons, ammunition and other unexploded ordnance from Syria’s 13-year civil war have been properly secured during a transition of power over the past seven months.
On Thursday, another large explosion at a military base hit the town of Maraat Misrin, in the northwestern province of Idlib. At least six people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the Syrian Civil Defense rescue teams. Rescue efforts were hampered by a series of explosions from the base, which contained weapons and munitions, state news media reported, citing the emergency and disaster management minister, Raed al-Saleh.
After a similar past explosion, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warned of “the presence of weapons and ammunition depots in areas close to civilian communities, which puts the lives of residents at constant risk.”
There have also been near weekly deaths from all of the unexploded ordnance that now litters Syria — mines, cluster bombs or other explosives. As some of the millions of Syrians displaced by the long war have begun to return to their hometowns and farming fields in the war’s aftermath, they are encountering these dangers.
The Syrian Defense Ministry has said little publicly about the string of explosions. In response to questions from The Times after a blast on July 7, the ministry attributed it to the effects of summer heat on a stockpile of unexploded ordnance previously collected for destruction.
On Thursday, a ministry spokesman said the causes of the various blasts were still being investigated.
Residents of al-Nayrab said they didn’t know what caused the blast on July 11. But a smaller explosion months earlier was set off when children burned a tire inside the abandoned military base to melt the plastic casing off copper cables so they could sell them for scrap, Mr. Handawi said.
After that incident, the government sent soldiers to remove most of the weapons at the site, residents said.
There are a variety of possible causes for the explosions, including heat or tampering, said Mohammad Sami al-Mohammed, who oversees the mine removal program under the new government’s Emergency Ministry.
“The widespread presence of weapons is presenting a big danger in many parts of Syria,” he said. “And it is a big obstacle for the recovery that we are hoping for.”
The ministry is planning to set up a center to remove mines and unexploded weapons, Mr. al-Mohammed said.
On July 2, a munitions warehouse blew up, rocking the nearby towns of Kafraya and al-Fua. Residents living nearby said the warehouse was under the control of foreign fighters.
Thousands of foreign combatants flocked to Syria during the civil war to fight with rebel factions or with extremist groups like the Islamic State, and many have stayed on after the war ended. The inclusion of these fighters in the ranks of Syria’s newly formed military has been a cause for concern both for some Syrians and for new international allies such as the United States.
Hassan al-Ahmad, a 45-year-old father of seven, said he was at home with his family drinking tea at the time of the July 2 blast.
“There were huge explosions, and we couldn’t escape,” said Mr. al-Ahmad, who lives near the munitions warehouse. “The explosions lasted for 10 minutes.”
Soon, he said, he saw a group of foreign fighters fleeing the warehouse. One of them warned the residents of the towns that the warehouse was on fire, he added.
When asked about the cause of the blast, the foreign fighter said that they had been cooking inside. Smaller explosions continued from the site until the next day, Mr. al-Ahmed said.
The Defense Ministry, in its statement to The Times, denied the presence of foreign fighters at the warehouse.
Two days after that explosion, Mr. al-Ahmed said, the Defense Ministry sent engineering units and security forces to the warehouse to secure the site and detonate the remaining munitions.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.