Kurdistan
A sign marks a landmine on the side of a road in Halgurd-Sakran National Park near the Kurdistan Region's border with Iran in February 2021. Photo: Hannah Lynch/Rudaw
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A landmine blast on Sunday took the life of a 28-year-old man and critically injured his brother in the mountainous areas of Sidakan in the Soran independent administration, a local official said.
Mohammed Heini, the victim, was killed by the landmine while on the Qalarash Mountain in Sidakan district with his 27-year-old brother Safwan Heini, Rabar Anwar, head of media for the Erbil branch of the Kurdistan Region’s Mine Action Agency (IKMAA), told Rudaw.
Anwar said that the landmine dated back to the Iran-Iraq War.
On Monday, a 35-year-old tradesman was killed by a landmine in the same area.
At least three people have lost their lives and two have been injured by mine explosions in Soran since the beginning of the year, according to statistics provided to Rudaw by Soran’s civil defense.
The Kurdistan Region is known for its tall mountains. However, landmines dating back to the Iran-Iraq War and the ongoing conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) along the border have killed many. Some of the minefields are only a few hundred meters away from nearby villages.
On Monday, Anwar cautioned people living the near the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas “to stay away from dangerous areas riddled with mines.”
In August, Mustafa Hameed, head of media at the Iraqi Directorate for Mine Action (DMA), told Rudaw that mine removal teams in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have cleared 4,540 of the 6,600 square kilometers of areas with landmines since 2003 in joint efforts between Baghdad and Erbil.
The Iraqi DMA and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) IKMAA have been working together since they signed a memorandum of understanding last year, outlining their cooperation and mutual technical support until 2028.
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) brutal reign across the north and west from 2014 to 2017. Vast areas of the country still need to be cleared for the safety of its peop
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