AFTERMATH OF WAR : Clearing the Mines

The delicate task of CLEARING AN ESTIMATED 40,000 IRAQI MINES from Kuwait’s beaches will take UP TO FOUR MONTHS, French army experts said this week. “What’s for sure is that Kuwaitis won’t be going to the beach this summer,” said the commander of a mine-clearing unit. In one day, he said, his unit found 135 mines along 100 yards of beach. Iraqi troops laid mines along the coast in preparation for a massive allied amphibious assault that never came. Now, the French soldiers, kneeling in the sand and working in pairs along three parallel lines, carefully remove the sand around mines to ensure they are not booby-trapped. The mines will eventually be blown up in batches of 100 to 200.