Most Daesh landmines are handmade: KRG official

By Idris Okuducu

ERBIL, Iraq

Most landmines being used by the Daesh terrorist group are locally manufactured, while the rest contain explosive materials made in Syria or in European countries, according to an official of northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Mohamed Ahmed Ismail, the KRG official in charge of landmine affairs, told Anadolu Agency that 90 percent of the landmines found in areas retaken from Daesh by peshmerga forces were of local manufacture.

"Daesh produces these landmines in areas under its control," he said. "They plant them in strategic locations to prevent the advance of security forces."

Daesh’s handmade landmines, he added, were different from those produced industrially, as they "only remain active for about three years".

He went on to note that that a special "committee" from Europe would soon visit Erbil -- the KRG’s administrative capital -- with a view to determining where exactly Daesh was obtaining explosive materials.

The KRG is currently in the process of clearing landmines planted on the Iraq-Iran border by the PKK terrorist group.

"We’re trying to clear the area of landmines, but the PKK is preventing us from entering the border region," which, Ismail said, "belongs to Kurdistan".