September
10, 2008: Yet another benefit of the
much reduced levels of violence in Iraq, is the ability to do mine clearance in
the central part of the country. The Islamic terrorists were hostile to mine
clearing teams (and anything else that made people feel better), so they have
generally stayed out of central Iraq for the past few years. Meanwhile, most
Saddam era landmines in the Kurdish north, and Shia south, have been cleared.
The new clearing effort in central Iraq includes the first use of mine
detection dogs. Using their keen sense of smell, dogs trained to detect the
unique, but very faint, aroma of land mines (explosives and other components),
find the mines, then stand back, and let a human deminer dig it out and dispose
of it.
