Dhi Qar child loses foot in cluster munition explosion

DHI QAR — An eight-year-old boy was severely injured Saturday when an unexploded cluster munition detonated in the Tel Al-Lahm area, south of Dhi Qar, security sources said.

“The child lost his left foot in the explosion,” a security source told 964media. The device was identified as a remnant of war, with unexploded ordnance still scattered in several areas of the governorate.

The boy, a resident of Al-Hasa’iya in the Souq Al-Shuyukh district, was with his father—who raises pigeons—when the explosion occurred. Medical teams transferred the child to a hospital for urgent treatment. Authorities have not yet provided further details on the incident or whether demining efforts will be conducted in the area.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to pose a persistent threat in Iraq, especially in regions that saw intense fighting in past conflicts. Decades after the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and the war against ISIS, vast areas remain contaminated with explosive remnants, endangering civilians in both urban and rural settings.

On Feb. 15, 2025, three children from Kut Al-Zain Primary School were killed when a landmine exploded while they played soccer near the Zaid bin Suhan shrine in the Kut Al-Fadagh area of Abu Al-Khaseeb district. A week earlier, on Feb. 8, a landmine blast in the Rumaila area, north of Zubair district in Basra, killed a young man and his sister and injured four other family members.

By the end of 2022, nearly 35,000 Iraqis had been killed or injured by landmines, unexploded ordnance, and improvised explosive devices, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor. The Iraqi Ministry of Environment announced on Nov. 11, 2024, that it had cleared 4,000 square kilometers of contaminated land and aims to complete nationwide demining by 2028.