Iraqi-Iranian committee set up to clear landmines

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A joint Iraqi-Iranian committee has been formed to remove landmines that were laid during the Iraq-Iran war from 1980-1988, the Iranian defense minister said on Saturday. “Over 50 private companies are removing landmines from areas that were theaters of the eight-year war,” the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, which falls today. The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shiite insurgency. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and within several months were repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years Iran was on the offensive. Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003. The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage – one million Iraqis and Iranians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded – but brought neither reparations nor change in borders. According to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Iran and Iraq, an estimated 20 million landmines were planted in cross-border Iraqi provinces during the war. SS (S) 1