Omani police discover objects 'similar' to military projectiles in mountainous region

The Royal Oman Police have found a series of suspicious items which could be missiles dating back to the middle years of the 20th century, reported the Times of Oman on Thursday.

The objects were found in the Al Dakhiliyah Governorate in the northern part of the country, and are "similar to very old projectiles [that] were found in a mountainous area far from the population centres," the Royal Oman Police said in a tweet. 

العثور على أجسام شبيهه بمقذوفات قديمة جدًا في أحد المناطق الجبلية البعيدة عن التجمعات السكانية كانت تستخدم كمنطقة تمارين عسكرية بمحافظة الداخلية، وتم تأمين المنطقة واستكمال التعامل الآمن مع الأجسام المشتبه بها من قِبل فريق التعامل مع المواد المتفجرة#شرطة_عمان_السلطانية pic.twitter.com/2FMibGUtOi

— شرطة عُمان السلطانية (@RoyalOmanPolice) April 21, 2022

Oman's sparsely populated mountainous regions were once used for military training, and tampering with objects that could be unexploded shells or other military hardware is likely to have deadly consequences.

Police have urged the public to report unknown objects found in public places.

This report comes a day after two Omani students died after tampering with old explosives in their homes in Nizwa – the provincial capital of Al Dakhiliyah Governorate around 164 kilometres southwest of the capital Muscat.

Oman is now one of the most peaceful countries in the world, but saw its fair share of fighting over the past century, having witnessed the Jebel Akhdar War in the 1950s and the Dhofar Rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s.