US LEAVES DEADLY LEGACY IN AFGHANISTAN

Washington, 12 Jumadil Akhir 1435/12 April 2014 (MINA) – As the deadline for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan is approaching, the US military is leaving behind nearly 1,300 square kilometers of land littered with undetonated explosives.

UN Mine Action Coordination Center reported that at least 70 people, most of them children – 88 percent, have been killed at the sites during the past two years.

Most of the dangerous sites, which are totally twice as big as New York City, have been poorly marked. Press Tv quoted.

Officials say it will take up to five years to clean up the ranges and that the US military has removed the munitions from only 3 percent of the territory covered by its sprawling ranges.

They also warn that casualties are likely to increase sharply, with some reports suggesting that the real causality numbers could be much higher than those reported by the UN. A study by the Washington Post said that at least 14 cases were not recorded in the UN report.

“We are anxious that the problem has arisen just as ISAF is leaving,” Abigail Hartley, director of the UN mine center, referring to the US-led International Security Assistance Force, said, as reported by the Post. “It would have been much better to have had it addressed during the last eight years.”

Edward Thomas, a spokesman for Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, claimed that the US military intend to remove the explosives from the firing ranges, the report said. But, he said, “It will take time and expense to complete this work.”

The Post said, “even if Congress approves the hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs, it will be extremely complicated to remove the munitions.”(T/P012/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)