Five employees of Iran’s National Oil Company have been injured in a land mine explosion in the NaftShahr region of Ghasr-e Shirin Province
The governor of Ghasr-e Shirin told Fars News Agency that the group had been dispatched to the area to check on an oil well when they drove into a land mine left over from the Iran-Iraq War.
Two of the wounded are in critical condition and have been reportedly transferred to Kermanshah for treatment. The other three were released after treatment for superficial wounds.
Decades after the Iran-Iraq War, land mines still claim lives in the border regions of Iran. Official reports put the past year’s death toll at 104.
ISNA has cited official reports indicating that Iran is the second-most land mine-contaminated country in the world after Egypt.
According to some statistics, the provinces of Kurdistan, Western Azerbaijan, Ilam and Kermanshah contain 12.8 million land mines, which means there is one for each person living in those provinces.
