Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The use of cluster bombs during the U.S.-led attacks in Afghanistan has pushed back efforts to clear this mine-laden city by at least a year and raised doubts about a plan to rid the region of unexploded ordnance by decade’s end, U.N. officials said Thursday.
Efforts to clear the region of bomblets, known as BLUs, have become the top priority for U.N.-backed demining teams in five southern provinces, where they are scattered in 46 areas.
“They are just waiting to explode,” said A.G. Asalati of the U.N. Regional Mine Action Center. “Many parts of Kandahar are contaminated … and some BLUs are near populated areas.”
International organizations such as British-based Landmine Action have estimated the United States dropped nearly 125,000 bomblets on Afghanistan, based on a Pentagon statement that about 600 cluster bombs were used by early December.
Each cluster bomb contains 202 bomblets, 7 percent to 15 percent of which are thought not to have exploded.
Afghanistan’s two decades of warfare left an estimated 5 million to 10 million mines littering the country, the majority of them left by the Soviets during their 10-year occupation of the country.
The International Committee for the Red Cross estimates about 3,000 Afghans are maimed each year by land mines. According to U.N. estimates, 100,000 people have been injured or maimed over the past 23 years.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
