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Just snooping around and found this rather disturbing fact: quote:On October 10, the third night of the military action by the United States and United Kingdom against Taliban positions and facilities, B-52 and B-1 bombers reportedly dropped "area munitions," including CBU-89 Gators.11 The CBU-89 Gator is a mixed-mine system containing both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines.12 If confirmed, this would mark the first time the U.S. is known to have used antipersonnel mines since the Gulf War one decade ago.
The CBU-89 Gator Mine System is a 1,000-pound cluster munition containing twenty-two antipersonnel mines and seventy-two antitank mines. The antipersonnel mines are activated by tripwires that will explode by the presence of a civilian or combatant. While the mines are equipped with self-destruct and self-neutralizing features to make them "short-lived," nations negotiating the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty rejected U.S. demands that these mine systems be exempted from the treaty. The use of self-destructing and self-neutralising antipersonnel mines will not prevent new mine victims and the clearance task will be just as time-consuming and costly, perhaps even more so.From here.
Given that Afghanistan is already one of the most heavily mined places on earth, does this strike anyone else as being a little odd? Maybe it's just standard wartime procedure, but it sounds utterly frightful; random explosions even if you know where the mines are. |
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