Environment Committee reports 2,500 victims for landmines blasts

MISSAN / IraqiNews.com: The Chairman of Southern Iraq‘s Missan Province’s Environment Committee has announced on Wednesday that 2,500 persons have been victims for land mines explosions since the end of the Iraq-Iran War in 1988. “The Team of the Field Program for Victims of Landmines had registered 2,500 victims of the landmines, left since the end of the the eight-year Iraq-Iran War in 1988,” Maitham Lafta al-Fartousi told IraqiNews.com news agency, charging that none of the local administrations or humanitarian organizations had paid any attention for that since long time. He said the existence of over 5 million landmines, planted on the eastern borders of Missan since the end of the Iraq-Iran War had caused daily blasts, adding that “the Center that was opened recently in the Province had been the first of its kind on the level of Iraq,” adding that the “program was implemented by the Iraqi Environment Ministry’s Landmines Affairs Department, through cooperation with the Iraqi Health Ministry, represented by Missan’s Health Department and the Iraqi Red Cross Society. Amara, the center of Missan Province, is 390 km to the south of Baghdad. SKH (TP)/SR 498