Anti-tank Mine Explosion in Mehran Border Areas Claims Lives of Three
Several Iranian media outlets reported that three people were killed in an explosion caused by a mine left over from the Iran-Iraq War.
Mehr News Agency reported on Monday, December 4, that a man and two women were killed in the border city of Mehran in western Iran after striking and detonating a mine. The news agency stated that Iran’s Ilam province police confirmed the explosion, noting that the detonated mine was an anti-tank type and all three people were killed instantly due to the severity of their injuries at the moment of explosion.
IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) also identified the location of the mine explosion as the “Qalavizan operational area in the border city of Mehran.”
The eight-year Iran-Iraq War ended approximately 29 years ago following a ceasefire, but the demining of Iran’s border areas was never completed.
In recent years, there have been repeated reports of border residents killed in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Ilam, Kermanshah, and Khuzestan.
Among these, this past summer, one person in Sardasht and two people in Kurdistan’s border areas were killed, and one month ago, several people in the Changuleh border area, a suburb of Mehran city, lost their lives in mine explosions.
Iranian officials previously stated that more than thirty million mines were laid in the border areas between Iran and Iraq.
Although four years ago, Islamic Republic officials announced the complete demining of areas where mines were planted, these mines continue to claim victims.
Some media activists previously told the Persian service of Voice of America that because the Islamic Republic is concerned about the movement of opposing Kurdish groups between Iraq and Iran, it deliberately does not complete the clearing of mined areas.
Source: Voice of America
