Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 12
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
An Iranian IRGC member was killed in a landmine explosion in a rural area near Iran’s border with Iraq Dec. 12 morning.
Reportedly, IRGC members were laying a road in the border region, when the landmine remaining from Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) exploded.
Another IRGC member was injured in the incident, Ali-Akbar Akbari, Governor of Salas-e Babajani town in Kermanshah province said, IRNA news agency reported.
Earlier in October, explosion of a landmine, left from Iran-Iraq war, in the same region claimed the life of a member of an Iranian demining group and injured another.
Iran is one of the countries with the most unexploded landmines, which kill and injure dozens 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 war. It was assumed that after the war, around 16 million mines could still remain in these areas.