Another child died in Monday explosion in a village of Kirkuk, bringing the death toll to three.
Two children were injured and two others killed when an unexploded ordnance exploded in the village of Adiliyah in the Yaichi subdistrict southwest of Kirkuk on Monday evening.
"Another child died in hospital today and buried, bringing the number of children killed and one injured in the explosion," KirkukNow reporter in the village of Adiliyah said.
The blast occurred while the children were playing around a garbage dump in the village.
The security forces and mine clearance organizations arrived in the village on Tuesday and are investigating the incident.
The security forces asked the villagers if they had any problems with anyone because they suspected that the explosives were not remnants of war.
"Because the remains of the explosives do not look old, they do not seem to be war remnants, it seems that someone put them because they did not rust and the composition seems to be manufactured," a security member anonymously said.
According to villagers who spoke to KirkukNow, this is the third case of explosion in the same garbage dump in the past 10 years. The first time was in 2011, the second in 2016 and the last in 2022.
According to the United Nations’ UN figures released in December 2021, 100 children were killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants in Iraq in the first nine months of last year.
More than 38,000 square meters of land have been planted with mines in southern and southwestern parts of Kirkuk during the 2014-2017 Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS war, while over 50% of the mined areas have been cleared, according to the Interior Ministry's Mine Affairs Directorate.
38 square Kilometers of mines planted by IS in Kirkuk province has not been demined, senior official of Iraqi ministry of interior said in a press conference in Kirkuk early 2021.
14,000 mines were dismantled in Kirkuk province till February 2021, making 50% of the mission, same number still to be cleared. ISIS has left behind mines planted all over 38 square km south and southwest of Kirkuk in 2014 to 2017. In June 2014, ISI took control of a third of Kirkuk province, including Hawjiya district, 55 km southwest Kirkuk, and its sub-districts of Zab, Rashad, Abbasi, Riyadh and Multaqa until it was recaptured by the Iraqi forces in October 2017.
Beside unexploded ordnance (UXO) such as mortars and grenades, Islamic State militants ISIS left improvised explosive devices (IEDs) everywhere.
