Can Iraq overcome its land mine infestation?
ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq is one of the worst-off countries in the world in terms of minefield and projectile pollution, with 25 million land mines and other unexploded ordnances scattered across the country. The concentration is especially dense in Iraqi Kurdistan, and efforts to clear the land are meeting with a number of obstacles.
Efforts to rid Iraqi Kurdistan of millions of land mines are being hampered by financial problems, corruption and the Islamic State's tenacity in planting more mines.
Author Ibrahim Malazada Posted July 29, 2016
TranslatorSami-Joe Abboud
“At the current pace, the estimated time required for the de-mining action in Kurdistan is 100 years," according to a series of reports by Shamal Adel Slim, a researcher who specializes in crimes against the Kurds.
Some 1.5 billion square meters (about 580 square miles) of land in Iraq contain mines, according to a 2015 US State Department report on surveys conducted in 2006 and 2011.
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http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/07/iraq-kurdistan-demining.html#ixzz4FtgOs8WU
