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One May morning, 10-year-old Khadab played in the ruins of a school near his home in northern Iraq. He saw something that looked interesting. It was yellow and plastic and looked like a ball. He reached for his new toy and, BANG!
The last thing he remembered was a big noise. When Khadab awoke, he was in hospital. His parents stood sadly by his side. They told him he had picked up an unexploded bomb. When it exploded, Khadab lost an arm.
He was just one of hundreds of Iraqi children who have been injured or killed by stepping on and picking up explosives left over from the war.
These landmines (地雷) and bombs have injured and killed at least 15 people a day since Saddam Hussein's government fell on April 9. And children are the most affected.
Iraq is among the worst landmine-affected countries in the world. Many villages in the war-torn areas are surrounded by minefields (雷区). These landmines lie on the ground between rocks, up in trees and on riverbeds.
Even though the war in Iraq is over, many children have not returned to school. They can be seen walking the streets with the natural curiosity of young kids. Their new playgrounds are places where the fighting took place. Many boys can be seen playing with unexploded bombs. A new game is to throw the bombs and run away. Some of them get away, but too many are killed. They do this for fun, and don't realize the dangers until it's too late.
UNICEF (联合国教科文组织) has warned children, through the TV, of the dangers of landmines and unexploded bombs in Iraq. They hope to make children aware of the dangers they face.
“I can't imagine there's going to be a classroom in the north without scared children in it. It's so widespread,” said Sean Sutton of the British-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
MAG is an organization working to clear unexploded bombs and landmines in war-torn areas.
It is difficult to report the exact number of deaths. Sutton said MAG found 320 injuries in northern Iraq in the first month after April 9. But he said the real figure was probably much higher.
