NCRI – Seven children have been severely injured in the latest mine disaster in Iran being blamed on the regime’s failure to clear former war zones of the deadly devices.
The schoolchildren – one only five-years-old – were playing at an obsolete military base in the city of Marivan when the mine exploded on October 18. Two are said to be in critical conditions and may face blindness.
The latest tragedy comes after the defense ministry announced in 2009 that the provinces of Kurdistan and Azerbaijan were completely purged of mines. However the event that occurred on Friday is one among many in the past years in these regions.
But the public prosecutor and a war victims researcher has said there are still at least 16 million mines in the western provinces that have remained unexploded, endangering the lives of 16 million people.
In the year 2009, there were 12 mine explosions killing four people in the city of Sardasht. In the New Year of 2012, two children lost their lives after a mine exploded in a village near the city of Saqez. In May of 2013, two young girls also lost their lives as a result of unexploded mines in a village near the city of Orumieh, northwestern Iran.
