Demining in Iraq

Problems

• Demining in Iraq

  Iraq is one of the most contaminated countries in the world by explosive ordnance. Moreover, the densely populated central and southern parts of the country are contaminated. The country has about 2,995 square kilometers of registered contaminated areas, including extensive and complex contamination in areas reclaimed from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Islamic State terrorists used landmines and booby traps in Iraq and Syria as they retreated from territories and to reinforce their strongholds. There are about 3,000 minefields in the border areas of Iraqi Kurdistan left over from the Iran-Iraq war that have affected at least 13,456 people since 1991, 3,000 of whom have died.
  
  Across Iraq, 27 percent of the contaminated areas are in agricultural areas, preventing productive use of the land for livelihood; another 21 percent are in infrastructure, hampering reconstruction efforts and access to infrastructure for services and economic opportunities; another 20 percent are on roads, hampering interconnectivity in the country; and 23 percent block access to water.
  
  Continued clearing of residential and agricultural areas is an important enabler of sustainable return and development and supports broader humanitarian objectives.

• Organizations that help clear an area

  Today, most demining activities are funded or coordinated by humanitarian organizations, including UNMAS and the Halo Trust.
  
  At the end of an armed conflict, they teach local people how to use metal detectors to search for mines and then defuse them.
  
  The UNMAS program in Iraq takes a programmatic approach to help the government of Iraq lead and coordinate national mine action, supported by contributions from many donors. Rather than blasting its way through a minefield, as the military normally does, the humanitarian organization aims for 100 percent mine clearance, which is much more difficult to accomplish. This involves using a metal detector to determine where the mine is, and then using a spade and feeler gently extract the mine from the ground. It is believed that a good sapper can find one mine a week.

• Mine detectors

  The legendary manual mine detector was invented by Polish officer Jozef Kosacki in 1939. To this day, it remains an indispensable aid to mine clearance. Like iron-age gold detectors, mine detectors use electric current to create a magnetic field, which creates another magnetic field when placed over the metal.
  Detecting this second field, the device gives a signal. The closer to the object, the stronger the signal.
  Unfortunately, the mine detector in some soil layers works worse than in others, and can only locate the object, but not the metal of which it is composed. Because of this, false signals are not uncommon.
  One of the major inventions of the last decade was the GPR, which is attached to the metal detector. But this expensive device has only just begun to pass from military to civilian hands, and has the same limitations as metal detectors: it can give false readings, and with its help, the operator is not able to determine what kind of object he has found. Thus, to date, the only way to guarantee that a site is 100% cleared is through manual demining.

• Improvised explosive devices

  Mines left over from past conflicts continue to cause serious harm to civilians and non-state armed groups like ISIS use different types of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) instead of mines. When it comes to conventional mines, you only need to find one to know what kind of devices you are dealing with. However, when it comes to localized mines made from whatever is at hand, demining becomes unpredictable.