Aid group says Raqqa returnees find booby traps, land mines

BEIRUT – An international aid group says booby traps, land mines and ammunition left behind by Islamic State militants in Raqqa are still a source of critical injury, six weeks after the fighting ended.

Doctors Without Borders says 49 patients with blast injuries arrived at a clinic run by the organization in eastern Raqqa in just 10 days at the end of November.

With many roads damaged or blocked, it can take up to two hours by ambulance to reach the nearest hospital with surgical capacity. As a result, people with critical injuries are at risk of dying before or during the journey, it said.

IS militants occupied Raqqa and it was their de facto capital for nearly four years. Kurdish-led forces led by the United States freed the city in mid-October.