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Aftermath of Iran-Iraq war: Leftover landmine kills child

Society Materials 6 September 2016 13:45 (UTC +04:00)
An Iranian child was killed in a landmine explosion near the city of Sardasht in the country’s northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, IRNA news agency reported Sept. 6.
Aftermath of Iran-Iraq war: Leftover landmine kills child

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 6

By Fatih Karimov – Trend:

An Iranian child was killed in a landmine explosion near the city of Sardasht in the country’s northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, IRNA news agency reported Sept. 6.

The incident happened yesterday, Sept. 5, as three children found a landmine remaining from the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) near the border of Iraq and started playing with it, Mir Ashkan Mahdavi, a local official, said.

As a result of the landmine’s explosion, an 8-year-old boy was killed, while two other children were wounded.

Mahdavi said this is the second landmine explosion incident in Sardasht since March 20, 2016, which marks the start of the current Iranian year.

Earlier in June, two people were killed in a similar incident near Alvatan village, where three farm workers hit on a tractor an Iran-Iraq war leftover landmine.

The resulting explosion destroyed the tractor and killed two people, including a 15-year-old boy.

Iran is one of the countries with the most unexploded landmines on its soil, which kill and injure dozens of people every year.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, there were 46 deaths and 76 injuries from landmines in Iran in 2012. Seven of the casualties were children.

Land areas in Iranian provinces of Ilam (1,700 hectares), Khuzestan (1.3 million hectares), Kermanshah (691,000 hectares), Western Azerbaijan (59,000 hectares) and Kurdistan (1,480 hectares) were mined during the Iran-Iraq war.

It is assumed that after the war around 16 million mines could still remain in these areas.

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