Iraq’s Al-Muthanna removes mines from 180 square kilometers

Shafaq News- Al-Muthanna

Authorities in Iraq’s Al-Muthanna province have cleared nearly 180 square kilometers of mine-contaminated land in Basiyah district after decades of war-related pollution, a local official revealed on Monday, pointing to a decline in casualties caused by unexploded ordnance.

Hayef Saleh Muzhir, director of Basiyah district, told Shafaq News that casualties before the launch of demining operations had reached around 37 deaths and injuries, adding that hazardous zones have since been marked with warning signs to reduce risks to civilians.

Some contaminated areas, Muzhir said, were later incorporated into oil exploration projects, with energy companies removing mines along operational road routes. He linked the heavy concentration of mines in Basiyah to the 1991 Gulf War, when retreating Iraqi forces and extensive US cluster bomb strikes left large desert areas contaminated.

Despite ongoing operations, four minefields dating back to before 1991 remain in the district, he noted, calling for expanded demining and public awareness teams across Basiyah’s more than 11 million dunams (1,100,000 hectares).

Al-Muthanna remains among Iraq’s most heavily affected provinces in terms of mine victims, with more than 4,000 deaths, injuries, and disabilities recorded since 1991, Ahmed Hamdan Al-Jashami, head of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Association told our agency in April. He estimated that around 70% of the district has been cleared, warning that desert areas in Basiyah still contain tens of thousands of unexploded munitions left from the 1991 conflict.

At the national level, Fadel al-Gharawi, head of the Strategic Center for Human Rights, outlined that official figures record more than 30,000 victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance since 2003, including men, women, and children.

Read more: Spoiled by the coil: Iraq's mines battles take their toll