Iraqi Kurdistan faces challenges in clearing land mines
The Iraq-Iran war and Saddam Hussein’s campaign against Kurds have left behind millions of square meters of contaminated land in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the latter has been trying to defuse the land mines that cause many deadly accidents each year.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — A small pile of stones in a field may look harmless to the casual observer, but they are a marker for a real danger in Iraqi Kurdistan. Land mines and other explosive remnants of war litter the country from decades of conflict.
“I don’t think mines have been used like this anywhere else in the world,” Sean Sutton, photographer and international communications manager for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), told Al-Monitor. There are an estimated 314 million square meters (121 square miles) of contaminated land across Iraqi Kurdistan, dating from the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Kurds.
