Lebanon
Casualties
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Casualties[1] |
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All known casualties(between 1975 and 2017) |
3,775 mine/unexploded remnants of war (ERW) casualties: 913 killed and 2,862 injured |
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Casualties in 2017 |
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Annual total |
36 |
Significant increase from 7 in 2016 |
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Survival outcome |
8 killed; 28 injured |
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Device type causing casualties |
16 antipersonnel mine; 4 antivehicle mine; 8 unspecified mines; 1 ERW; 5 unexploded submunition; 2 unknown devices |
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Civilian status |
28 civilians; 1 deminer; 5 military |
2 unknown |
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Age and gender |
29 adults: 27 men; 1 woman; 1 unknown |
5 children: 4 boys; 1 girl |
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Casualties in 2017 – details
In 2017, 28 civilian casualties were reported by the Lebanon Mine Action Center (LMAC). Five military casualties and one deminer were reported in the media. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) recorded two casualties as the result of a landmine left by the non-state armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS).
Twenty-five of the 36 casualties occurring in 2018 were Lebanese and eight were Syrian.
Annual mine/ERW casualty rates have declined significantly from the 113 casualties recorded in 2000, except for a spike in casualties between August and December 2006 immediately following the July 2006 bombing, shelling, and cluster munition attacks on southern Lebanon by Israel.[2]
The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Lebanon recorded by the LMAC from 1975 to December 2017 was 3,775.[3] Between 2006 and 2017 LMAC reported 509 casualties (64 killed and 445 injured). Of these, 354 were adults and 155 were children. Ninety-three percent (473) were male and 7 percent (36) were female. Fifty-seven were caused by mines, 47 by ERW, 338 by unexploded submunitions, and 67 by unknown devices.[4]
Cluster munition casualties
Five unexploded submunition casualties were reported for 2017, an increase from the one reported for 2016, but fewer than the 13 reported for 2015.
Through December 2017, the Monitor had identified 740 cluster munition casualties, including those recorded by LMAC. Little data is available on casualties that occurred during cluster munition strikes; only 16 (three killed; 13 injured) were identified.[5]
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on: emails from Brigadier General Ziad Nasr, Director, Lebanon Mine Action Center, 20 and 21 February 2018; “Landmine explosion kills three soldiers, injures another in NE Lebanon,” Kuwait News Agency, 20 August 2018; “Lebanon army says in final stage of IS border battle,” AFP, 22 August 2017; “Mine clearance specialist injured in explosion,” The Daily Star Lebanon, 24 November 2017; the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) data for Lebanon, January to December 2017, accessed at https://www.acleddata.com/
[2] Between August and December of 2006, 209 casualties were recorded. Presentation of Lebanon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Side Event, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
[3] Email from Brig. Gen. Elie Nassif, LMAC, 7 July 2016 and from Brig. Gen. Ziad Nasr, Director, Lebanon Mine Action Center, 20 February 2018.
[4] Emails from Brig. Gen. Nasr, LMAC, 2 June 2017 and 20 February 2018.
[5] Prior to July 2006, 338 casualties occurred, and 369 casualties occurred between August 2006 and December 2011. Thirty-three occurred between 2012 and 2017. It was not clear if the casualties during use were included in this total. Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 121; Patrick Galey, “Living without a leg,” BikyaMasr (Nabatieh), 14 November 2009; and email from Col. Rolly Fares, LMAC, 30 March 2012, and Monitor analysis of casualty data 2012-2017.