{"id":18447,"date":"2021-08-09T06:53:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T06:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/?p=18447"},"modified":"2021-11-03T14:13:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:13:13","slug":"clearing-homemade-and-sophisticated-ieds-in-yemen-to-keep-civilians-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/clearing-homemade-and-sophisticated-ieds-in-yemen-to-keep-civilians-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearing homemade and sophisticated IEDs in Yemen to keep civilians safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image source=”featured_image” img_size=”full” alignment=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1524156224953{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1635948789383{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”]So far since mid-2018, Project Masam has cleared 6,081 Improvised Explosive Devices, known as IEDs across Yemen. IEDs can come in many forms, with the most sophisticated ones assembled to cause huge damage and fatalities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there has been a rise in IED \u2018attacks\u2019 across Yemen, due to Houthi militias\u2019 growing use of homemade IEDs, some of which are disguised as common household appliances, rocks or tree trunks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, which IEDs are Masam teams currently finding across liberated Yemeni areas, and how do the teams ensure civilians are kept safe from harm?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The term IED indicates that these are not Conventional manufactured mines, munitions or devices. The devices\u00a0can be\u00a0constructed by using general day-to-day materials available in hardware stores and\u00a0supermarkets,\u00a0however the Houthi militias also have a steady supply of IED\u00a0materials and components being imported into Yemen from overseas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many\u00a0household\u00a0industrial\u00a0chemicals and\u00a0fertilisers,\u00a0that\u00a0are freely available in markets when processed in a certain way and mixed together will result in an end-product of \u201chomemade explosives\u201d. Conventional explosive ordnance, fuses, ignitor assemblies and mechanisms are imitated and copied to produce improvised \u201chomemade\u201d versions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Masam clears \u2018rock\u2019 IED<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, Masam\u2019s Team 6 was deployed to a location approximately 12km (7.5mi) from\u00a0Ataq\u00a0city in Shabwah Governorate<\/a>, where local security forces had reported an IED next to the road.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an improvised directional fragmentation IED (referred to in Conventional terms as a Claymore type mine<\/a>) concealed within a fibreglass mould simulating a natural rock for concealment and camouflage. The particular IED contained approximately 2kg of explosives\u00a0and hundreds of metal fragments,\u201d\u00a0one of Project Masam\u2019s Technical Advisors said from Masam\u2019s Marib headquarters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause IEDs are fabricated in various sizes and shapes,\u00a0some\u00a0contain\u00a0much larger explosive\u00a0payloads, which are designed to inflict the maximum damage to the intended target, be it personnel, vehicles or infrastructure.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Team 6 reported this specific device was sophisticated, as it was fitted with a\u00a0Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensor connected to a basic\u00a0electrical\u00a0radio-controlled\u00a0arming\u00a0circuit.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Any movement in front of the device that would be detected by the\u00a0infra-red\u00a0sensor, or any disturbance of the device itself, will have triggered the electronic circuit sending an electrical current to the detonator, which will detonate the\u00a0fragmentation\u00a0charge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf not found and reported by the local security forces, and removed by Masam teams, this would have posed a grave danger and most definitely resulted in injury and fatalities of people and livestock should they have triggered the device,\u201d the\u00a0Technical Advisor said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Greater safety for affected communities<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In accordance with the five pillars of Mine Action<\/a>, Project Masam carries out Mine Risk Education across communities<\/a> to\u00a0reduce the risk of injury or loss of life from mines, IEDs and unexploded ordnance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important factor that needs to be conveyed to the local community is that they should never approach any item that they are not familiar with,\u201d the\u00a0Technical Advisor added.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is especially with children, who are in nature very curious. Unfortunately the main reason for most injuries to younger people is their curiosity. Our teams encourage them to \u2018always keep a safe distance from any suspicious or unfamiliar objects and report it immediately to the nearest security forces or civil defence units\u2019.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Masam Field Operatives are trained specialists and have undergone years of training in all categories and types of Explosive Ordnance whether Commercial or Improvised. Masam teams are evaluated and tested regularly to ensure that they are familiar with all\/any new development of Explosive items.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Masam first entered Yemen in June 2018, it has cleared 25,168,541sqm of Yemeni land, effectively locating and destroying a total of 266,452 deadly explosive devices.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was first published on\u00a0Medium.<\/a><\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image source=”featured_image” img_size=”full” alignment=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1524156224953{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1635948789383{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”]So far since mid-2018, Project Masam has cleared 6,081 Improvised Explosive Devices, known as IEDs across Yemen. IEDs can come in many forms, with the most sophisticated ones assembled to cause huge damage and fatalities.\u00a0 Unfortunately,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[226,230,149,201,118,227,223,224,124,98,110,228,229,102,225,117,101,109,119,111,108],"class_list":["post-18447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ataq-yemen","tag-claymore-mine","tag-houthi-landmines","tag-houthi-militias","tag-ieds","tag-ieds-in-yemen","tag-ieds-yemen","tag-improvised-explosive-devices","tag-landmines-in-yemen","tag-mine-action","tag-mine-clearance","tag-mine-risk-education","tag-mine-risk-education-yemen","tag-project-masam","tag-unmas","tag-yemac","tag-yemen","tag-yemen-crisis","tag-yemen-executive-mine-action-centre","tag-yemen-news","tag-yemen-war","category-18","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18554,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18447\/revisions\/18554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}