Iraq to launch landmine-clearing campaign

Baghdad - Iraq is to launch a campaign to clear millions of landmines and pieces of unexploded ordnance in the country, the head of the country's landmine removal agency said in remarks published Wednesday. There are at least 25 million landmines in Iraq, 10 million of were planted in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north, the head of the organization tasked with removing the mines and munitions told the daily al-Sabah.

Zahem Jihad said the organization would coordinate with the Ministry of Environment to survey minefields near the capital Baghdad, Basra and Babil.

"Landmines pose a real danger to the country," he said. "We should coordinate efforts to clear them and revive the vital areas of agriculture and production that were damaged as a result."

Jihad said the estimated 3 million tons of unexploded ordnance and 4,446 minefields that remain from the 1991 Gulf War and the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war were harming Iraq's economic development.

Ninety-four "danger zones" have been identified in the area around the massive Rumaila oil field in the south, including a 17-kilometer minefield and areas still threatened by unexploded cluster bombs.

Around Baghdad, removal efforts would focus on the area from the districts of Radwanaya to Jihad, as one of the most dangerous zones, he said. In Basra, sappers would focus on removing mines from agricultural areas and along Iraq's border with Iran.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/295253,iraq-to-launch-landmine-clearing-campaign.html.