Youths tampering with mine injured in blast near Sulaimani village

Decades-old mines continue to claim multiple casualties yearly in the Kurdistan Region, especially areas bordering Iran, which is where the two young men found the explosive device.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A landmine explosion on Monday injured two young men who live in a Kurdistan Region village near the Iranian border.

The two, an 18-year-old student and 20-year-old worker, were tampering with a landmine they had found in the Chakwani village in Sulaimani province’s Pishdar District, Idris Omar, a chief physician at a hospital in Qaladize told Kurdistan 24.

“Due to the explosion, the faces of both youths had been burned and some of their fingers were severed,” Omar added. “The state of one of the two is currently stable while the other has been transported to Sulaimani due to the seriousness of his condition.”

Decades-old mines continue to claim multiple casualties yearly in the Kurdistan Region, especially in border areas – of which Pishdar is a part.

Most mines date back to the 1980s during the war with Iran when the Iraqi regime planted thousands of mines on the border to hinder the advance of Iranian troops. The eight-year war between Iran and Iraq began in September 1980 and continued until August 1988.

After 1991, many local and international mine-related organizations have contributed to clear explosives from the Iraq-Iran border. Large swaths of territory remain dangerous as they have not been de-mined yet, or have been only partially cleared.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany