US donates $200,000 for demining operations in south Mine Clearer Killed, several wounded

The Daily Star Lebanon Wednesday October 27

BEIRUT: The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs awarded $200,000 to Lebanon’s Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a US Embassy statement said Tuesday.

The donation was part of a two-to-one matching grant for sub-munitions clearance with the American Task Force for Lebanon (ATFL), which raised $100,000 in private donations in September.

Since August 2006, the United Nations reports that there have been 44 fatalities and 298 injuries from explosive remnants of Lebanon’s summer 2006 war with Israel.

“More than half of the land contaminated by explosive remnants of the 2006 summer war has already been cleared by MAG and other demining organizations, thanks to generous donors, including ATFL and the United States government,” the embassy statement said.

According to the statement, the grant provided by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement and the funds raised by the ATFL supported battle area clearance operations by six MAG mine action teams for over one month, including mechanical clearance. These teams cleared more than 112,000 square meters of land.

One mine clearer was killed and several others wounded Monday when cluster bomb fragments exploded amid removal work in south Lebanon. – The Daily Star