Shafaq News- Duhok

Authorities in Duhok, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, defused four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on Thursday after recent floods exposed them in Darkar subdistrict.

Speaking with Shafaq News, Reger Besfki, media officer at the Directorate of Mine Affairs, explained that a report from Darkar administration and local Asayish (Kurdistan Region security forces) alerted teams to suspicious objects in Steblan village.

Specialized clearance teams were deployed to the site, where they neutralized the IEDs and transferred their remnants to secure locations for disposal.

Besfki previously told Shafaq News that flooding in Iraq has displaced explosive remnants from known contaminated zones into new areas, heightening risks to civilians. The Strategic Center for Human Rights in Iraq estimates that more than 6,600 square kilometers of land have been contaminated since 2003, with over 30,000 people killed or injured nationwide, including women and children.

Decades of conflict, including the war against ISIS, have left behind large quantities of unexploded ordnance, which are often re-exposed by heavy rains, flooding, and soil erosion.

Read more: Floods unearth Iraq’s hidden mines, reviving wartime threat from Kirkuk to Iran border