The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the members of the engineering squad which formed by the International Mine Action Centre of the Russian Armed Forces have begun engineering reconnaissance and demining roads leading to the historical part of Palmyra city and its surroundings.

The ministry said that the Russian experts have discovered and rendered safe over 120 explosive devices and cleared about 1 kilometer of roads from explosive items, adding that the experts are using dogs and a variety of devices to detect mines and detonators.

The Ministry said that during engineering reconnaissance, specialists from the International Anti-Mine Center discovered and removed homemade explosive devices placed in asphalted roads, intersections, roadside buildings, and facilities including power substations, water pumping stations, bakeries and hospitals, noting that some of the explosive devices included pipe bombs anti-tank mines equipped with electric detonators.

The Ministry pointed out that those explosive devices that couldn’t be removed were disposed of via controlled detonation using special pressure charges after taking the necessary security measures, SANA reported.

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