DAMASCUS, Syria: An explosion at an arms depot in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province killed at least 14 people and injured 11 others on Wednesday, authorities said, as rescuers searched the site for survivors.
The Idlib health department said the blast occurred at a temporary storage facility used to collect weapons and war remnants near the city of Sarmada.
“The toll from the explosion in a temporary storage facility for collecting weapons and war remnants near the city of Sarmada… registered 14 killed and 11 injured in a preliminary count,” the health department said.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, citing the Defence Ministry, said the warehouse had been used to store weapons and munitions left over from the country’s uprising and subsequent civil war.
The ministry’s media department earlier told state television that several ministry personnel had been wounded in the blast.
Civil Defence and Syrian Red Crescent teams were continuing to search the site for survivors trapped beneath the rubble.
Subhi Assaf, a senior official at the Idlib health directorate, said rescue teams were searching for missing people under the debris.
Security forces closed roads leading to the site to protect civilians, while Defence Ministry teams worked with other authorities to secure the area, SANA reported.
Images broadcast by Syrian media showed large columns of smoke rising from the site. Video footage circulated after the blast also appeared to show smaller explosions following the main blast.
Footage shows an explosion striking a weapons depot near Sarmada in the Idlib countryside. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported casualties, including among Defense Ministry personnel. pic.twitter.com/uDLy4vx9U4
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) September 9, 2026
The explosion was the second deadly blast reported in Idlib this month.
Earlier, a car carrying ammunition exploded in the city of Binnish, killing five people. An unnamed government source told AFP at the time that the vehicle belonged to a weapons trader.
