Global Death Toll of Landmines Rises Due to Mines Laid by Militants

A member of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) demining team searches for landmines in Khazer, Iraq December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily/File Photo
A member of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) demining team searches for landmines in Khazer, Iraq December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily/File Photo
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Global Death Toll of Landmines Rises Due to Mines Laid by Militants

A member of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) demining team searches for landmines in Khazer, Iraq December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily/File Photo
A member of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) demining team searches for landmines in Khazer, Iraq December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily/File Photo

The global casualty toll of landmines doubled in 2018 from a 2013 low due to conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, and Mali and mostly due to the increased use of improvised landmines set by militant groups such as ISIS.

Representatives from affected nations, non-governmental organizations and donor countries are gathered in Oslo this week to discuss how to achieve the stated aim of making the world free of landmines in 2025.

Landmines killed or injured some 6,897 people in 2018, according to the Landmine Monitor report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Some 71% of the casualties were civilians, and of these, over half were children, it said.

In 2018, most casualties were due to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid by non-state groups, the report added.

The lowest globally recorded number was set at 3,457 casualties in 2013.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said that in order to reduce the casualty toll it was necessary to engage with non-state actors, acknowledging that it was “very difficult” to do.

“We have to take on that challenge,” Soereide said in an interview. The Nordic country is one of the top donor countries for demining work, with $40 million pledged to 20 countries in 2018 and 2019 respectively. No new money will be pledged at this week’s conference.

IRAQ
Iraq is the world’s most contaminated country with landmines, partly due to the mines laid by ISIS to defend the territory it once controlled over Iraq and Syria.

Iraq was already heavily contaminated as a result of the 2003 invasion by the US-led coalition, the 1991 Gulf War, and the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

But this has only increased since ISIS' presence and now at least 1,818 sq km (702 sq miles) are contaminated - an area bigger than London - according to a report prepared for the conference by the Mine Action Review research group.

“It was done on an industrial scale. ISIS had production lines, they set serial numbers on the devices,” said Portia Stratton, Iraq Country Director for MAG, a British non-governmental organization working in northern Iraq, including the districts of Sinjar, Tel Afar and Tel Kaif and around Mosul.

“We find mine belts surrounding cities and villages and multiple rows of interlinked mine belts running across agricultural fields,” she told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

Homes in both cities and villages are also laid with landmines and IEDs and MAG wants to conduct demining inside Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city with 2 million inhabitants, depending on funding, she added.



Pro-Palestinian Activists Due to Appear Court after Damaging Planes at RAF Base

Demonstrators look on during a protest after British lawmakers voted to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, outside Downing Street in London, Britain, July 2, 2025. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
Demonstrators look on during a protest after British lawmakers voted to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, outside Downing Street in London, Britain, July 2, 2025. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
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Pro-Palestinian Activists Due to Appear Court after Damaging Planes at RAF Base

Demonstrators look on during a protest after British lawmakers voted to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, outside Downing Street in London, Britain, July 2, 2025. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
Demonstrators look on during a protest after British lawmakers voted to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, outside Downing Street in London, Britain, July 2, 2025. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Four people are set to appear in a London courtroom on Thursday over charges connected with an incident in which pro-Palestinian protesters damaged two Royal Air Force planes with red paint and crowbars.

The charges come after the group Palestine Action said two of its members entered RAF Brize Norton on June 20 and used electric scooters to approach two Voyager jets used for air-to-air refueling. The protesters used repurposed fire extinguishers to spray paint into the planes’ jet engines and caused further damage with crowbars, according to the group, which released video footage of the incident, The Associated Press said.

The four, all between the ages of 22 and 35, are charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage and conspiracy to enter a prohibited place for purposes prejudicial to the interests of the UK, counter-terror police said in a statement. The Crown Prosecution Service will argue that that the offenses have a “terrorist connection,” police said.

Palestine Action has claimed responsibility for a series of incidents targeting Israeli defense contractors in the UK and other sites linked to the war in Gaza. Following the incident at RAF Brize Norton, the government introduced legislation to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. The measure means it will be a criminal offense to belong to or support the group, with a maximum of 14 years in prison.

Palestine Action rejects that assertion, saying its protests are designed to end international support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Planes from Brize Norton, 70 miles (112 kilometers) northwest of London, regularly fly to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, Britain’s main air base for operations in the Middle East.