ERBIL — The Kurdistan Mine Action Agency said on Tuesday that its teams safely destroyed more than 100 explosive ordnances which had been found in Mergasor district of Erbil province.
Ali Abdulrahman, Director General of Mine Affairs in Erbil, told BasNews that the agency’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) teams found the explosives in Chama river in Mergasor.
After being informed by the local mayor, the teams arrived at the site and took out the explosives, which also included two landmines, the official said, noting they were safely destroyed.
"It is suspected that more explosives remain in the river, so work will continue until the place is completely cleared, because in the summer and hot season, many people come to swim in the area," he added.
Official statistics indicated that an estimated 314 million square meters of land in the Kurdistan Region is still covered by landmines, mostly planted by the former Iraqi Baath regime and Iran during the eight-year war between the two countries in the 1980s.