Munitions Take Toll in Kuwait
Mines and ammunition left over from the Persian Gulf War have killed or wounded 1,420 people in Kuwait, many of them children, according to a Health Ministry report.
The report, published Wednesday in the Arabic daily Al Watan, gave no breakdown for the dead but said the largest percentage of victims were children.
It covered March to December, the first 10 months after the ejection of Iraqi troops from the emirate by the United States and its Gulf War allies.
Officials said in December that about 200 civilians had been killed in accidents involving mines and ammunition.
This did not include 84 foreign and local experts killed while trying to remove the munitions, an operation that officials say will take at least three years.
Doctors say that despite a big media campaign, parents are not doing enough to warn their children of the dangers.
Meanwhile, Iraq said Wednesday that it has found and disarmed more than 181,000 unexploded allied bombs and missiles launched during the Gulf War.
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