Meeting Iraqi Kurdistan’s ‘Million Mine Man’

“He may well have cleared that number of mines,” says Ahmed Fattah, spokesperson for the Sulaymaniyah province’s Department of Mine Affairs. “He has spent more than 20 years de-mining and he has worked almost every day.”

Ali worked in areas like Banjuin, Halabja, Karmayan and Sayed Sadiq, Fattah notes. “And those are among the worst areas in Kurdistan regarding mines.”
Ali is well known for his work and in fact, some locals have nicknamed him “Hoshyar Mines” or “the mine man”. He has even had streets named after him in some areas.

This is probably also due to the fact that Ali himself is happy to publicise his work. He has ben collecting the mines he defused and has turned his own home into a kind of museum for what is left of the deadly weapons. He has 18 tons of salvaged mine materials there, in Hawraman in the Halabja area, some of which are rare; not even the Department of Mine Affairs has them, Ali boasts.

A Japanese flag hangs over his home because it was the Japanese government that paid for him to travel to that country and fitted him with two artificial legs. And on his car there are pictures of mines, as well as a slogan: “I am ready to exterminate you, wherever you are”.