Yet Ahmed is optimistic about the de-mining. He told Al-Monitor that there are six international organizations now operating in various areas across Kurdistan and other organizations are being recruited to join the effort. According to a report by the Speda channel, a French team recently visited Kurdistan to train competent de-mining teams and provide them with essential supplies.
Observers say most of those organizations are interested in the fields that have been recently mined by IS, as this would allow displaced people to return to the areas that have been liberated from IS.
According to an April 4 statement to Bas newspaper by Ahmed Fattah, media manager of the Sulaimaniyah branch of the General Directorate of Mine Action, more than half of Iraq's mine fields have yet to be de-mined. Fattah said the number of victims killed or wounded by land mines in Iraq since 1991 exceeds 14,000. He told Al-Monitor that only 122 people out of these victims are professionals, while the rest are innocent citizens.
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