美国国家公共电台 NPR ISIS' Parting Gift To Its Former Capital: Thousands Of Explosive Booby Traps

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When fighters for ISIS abandoned their capital, they left behind a deadly parting gift. Islamic State fighters salted that city, Raqqa, with explosive booby traps. Now, young Syrian men are training to remove them. NPR's Tom Bowman traveled to Raqqa to see the preparations for perilous¹ work.

(CROSSTALK)

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE²: The Syrian instructor³ and his young student are trying to dismantle⁴ a booby trap that's set inside the metal front door of this abandoned house in a village on the outskirts⁵ of Raqqa. They slide a selfie stick with a camera inside the gap, searching for the wire to cut.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALARM)

BOWMAN: That's not the sound they wanted to hear, says the American Special Forces trainer.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We have penalty alarms that you step on, and it signifies an explosion.

BOWMAN: That mock explosion would likely have killed or maimed both men, much like the real explosions that happen daily in Raqqa just down the highway. There are some three dozen casualties each week in Raqqa from the thousands of booby trap doors, chairs, even cooking pots. And the method is cruelly simple. The bombs are detonated by what looks like a beaded necklace made of fishing line with small metal disks set inside plastic capsules. When they're crushed by a foot, it completes a circuit, setting off the explosion, says the trainer who cannot be named for security reasons.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They blend into just about anything - tile, rock. They're very hard to see and very simple to make and very hard to detect - not a big metal signature.

BOWMAN: A metal signature that could be picked up by sophisticated equipment. These students will get some of that high-tech⁶ equipment, but the American and Syrian trainers want them to use their minds and their eyes first. Scan the ground for something that looks out of place.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They make a lot of mistakes, but we want them to make them here.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Foreign language spoken).

BOWMAN: Nearby, some other students are practicing detonating an explosive. They place a plastic hook on a wire and then walk backwards⁷, unspooling what looks like kite string. That way they move to a safe distance and either cut the wire or pull it to detonate the bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Foreign language spoken).

BOWMAN: And Raqqa is riddled⁸ with these bombs, says Christina, a surgeon with the U.S. Special Operations Forces here who sees the toll⁹ every day.

CHRISTINA: It's people that are trying to go back into their homes whether they're collecting belongings¹⁰ or trying to move back in to kind of see what's left. And their houses are booby trapped and they're, you know, just devastating¹¹.

BOWMAN: Devastating wounds on mostly men, she says, but some women and children, too.

CHRISTINA: A lot of lower extremity¹² wounds, but we see a lot of penetrating¹³ head trauma¹⁴, a lot of chest stuff, abdominal¹⁵ stuff, a lot of traumatic amputations of limbs.

BOWMAN: Not one of the graduates trained here has been a casualty on the job, but most have lost family members to ISIS booby traps, bullets or executions. One of the students here is Nabeel Mukhil Hamza. He's a slight 19-year-old wearing a red parka. He's from Raqqa, where he was once jailed by ISIS for four days. His crime - smoking.

Why are you here doing this training?

NABEEL MUKHIL HAMZA: (Through interpreter) We attend this course of training to protect the civilians¹⁶, also to clear our city out of the IEDs or any type of explosives.

BOWMAN: Have you lost any friends or family members?

HAMZA: (Through interpreter) During the day that Raqqa was under the control of ISIS, my brother-in-law, he tried to run away with his family. Unfortunately, he stepped on one of those mines and lost his life.

BOWMAN: He was just 36 and left behind a wife and young daughter. Hamza says some of his neighbors' homes are laced with booby traps - one just 40 feet from his house where he lives with his mother. Is he afraid about his new career?

HAMZA: (Through interpreter) No, I'm not scared. I'm here for my ultimate goal, which is to make everyone safe in my city. I want all those displaced people to come back. They are safe homes.

BOWMAN: When you told your mother you wanted to do this, what did she say?

HAMZA: (Through interpreter) She just prayed for me. She said, may Allah save you.

BOWMAN: About 150 young men like Hamza have been trained so far. But officials here say the threat is so great hundreds more will be needed. Tom Bowman, NPR News, near Raqqa, Syria.

(SOUNDBITE OF DHAFER YOUSSEF'S "ASCETIC JOURNEY")

1 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

4 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

5 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

6 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

7 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

8 riddled   

adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式)

参考例句：

• The beams are riddled with woodworm. 这些木梁被蛀虫蛀得都是洞。
• The bodies of the hostages were found riddled with bullets. 在人质的尸体上发现了很多弹孔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

10 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

11 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

12 extremity   

n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度

参考例句：

• I hope you will help them in their extremity.我希望你能帮助在穷途末路的他们。
• What shall we do in this extremity?在这种极其困难的情况下我们该怎么办呢？

13 penetrating   

adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的

参考例句：

• He had an extraordinarily penetrating gaze. 他的目光有股异乎寻常的洞察力。
• He examined the man with a penetrating gaze. 他以锐利的目光仔细观察了那个人。

14 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

15 abdominal   

adj.腹（部）的，下腹的；n.腹肌

参考例句：

• The abdominal aorta is normally smaller than the thoracic aorta.腹主动脉一般比胸主动脉小。
• Abdominal tissues sometimes adhere after an operation.手术之后腹部有时会出现粘连。

16 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。