PHNOM PENH, Mar 11 (NNN-AKP) – A Cambodian explosive ordnance disposal diving team, safely removed a war-left unexploded U.S. Mark 82 (Mk 82) bomb, from the Stung Sen river, in the central Kampong Thom province, a mine clearance chief said, yesterday.
Heng Ratana, head of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), said, the centre’s underwater clearance team, recovered the bomb from the river bottom to the shore, on Wednesday, after a two-day mission.
Ratana said, the team found the bomb after fishermen reported to the local authority recently that, they felt a large bomb five metres underneath the water, while fishing in the river.
According to the CMAC, the bomb, which was dropped from a U.S. warplane, between 1965 and 1973, weighed about 230 kg.
A total of 39 aerial bombs were found and safely removed in different provinces throughout Cambodia last year, the CMAC said, adding that, most of the bombs were Mk 82 and M117 massive bombs, weighing about 340 kg each.
Cambodia is one of the world’s countries that suffered most from mines and unexploded ordnances (UXOs), as a result of three decades of war and internal conflicts, from the mid-1960s until 1998. An estimated four to six million land mines and other munitions were left over from the conflicts.
The CMAC said that, between 1965 and 1973, the United States dropped about 2.7 million tonnes of explosives on 113,716 locations in the country.
Since 1979 to 2021, a total of 64,964 landmine and UXO casualties were recorded. Of the casualties, 19,808 people were killed and 45,156 were either injured or amputated, according to a report from the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA).– NNN-AKP
