“The incident occurred in the desert of Rumaila in western Basra province yesterday,” Basra police spokesperson Colonel Aziz Hashim told Rudaw.
The victims were a family of farmers who were working their tomato field when a wartime landmine exploded, which Hashim said dates back to the 1991 Gulf War.
In August, Iraq’s state demining directorate told Rudaw that one-third of Iraq’s landmine-contaminated areas have yet to be cleared.
It said that the provinces of Basra, Diyala, Babil, and Anbar have the highest areas covered by mines.
In December, the directorate told Rudaw that over 30,000 people have been killed and left injured in Iraq since they began demining in 2003.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region suffer from the widespread presence of landmines, a legacy of the Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 US-led invasion, and the Islamic State’s (ISIS) occupation from 2014 to 2016. Vast areas of the country still need to be cleared for the safety of its people.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.
