After five years of living in a tent near the Turkish border, Abdo Ahmad Saleh was finally able to return to his childhood home in Aleppo’s countryside when a rebel military offensive drove back forces loyal to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year. Like many internally displaced Syrians and refugees who had fled the regime, Saleh was overjoyed at the prospect of coming home.

Shortly after returning, however, Abdo’s eight-year-old son, Mohammed Omar Saleh, ventured into a nearby field with a group of his cousins. As the children explored, they came across an unfamiliar object that they took to be a toy. The device they had found was, in fact, a landmine.

‘‘When they were playing, we heard a huge explosion sound around nine in the morning. We went outside, running, and found pieces of flesh everywhere,’’ said Omar Saleh Al-Ahmad, Mohammed’s uncle.

'‘Our village is full of mines,” Omar continued, as he stood next to the bed where Wardeh lay motionless, “We wish for help to remove them, but so far no teams came to clean up the area. We are afraid to go out. Everything is exploding—the land is full of mines.’