Cambodia discovers, safely neutralizes another war-left U.S. aerial bomb MK-82: official

Sun, 23 Feb 2025

Cambodia discovers, safely neutralizes another war-left U.S. aerial bomb MK-82: official

Xinhua
20 Feb 2025, 21:47 GMT+10

Cambodia discovers, safely neutralizes another war-left U.S. aerial bomb MK-82: official

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodia's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) expert team has found and safely neutralized another war-left U.S.-made MK-82 aerial bomb in southwest Kampong Speu province, a mine clearance chief said on Thursday.

Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), said the bomb, weighing more than 230 kilograms, had been discovered in a pit in Phnom Sruoch district's Traeng Trayueng Commune.

He said because the old bomb posed high risks, CMAC's EOD experts decided to use a remote-controlled machine to cut and defuse it.

"We thank authorities for evacuating local people to a safe place, so we could accomplish our mission successfully," he wrote on social media, with photographs showing experts defusing the bomb.

According to the official, since the start of the year, the EOD expert team has unearthed and safely removed at least four MK-82 aerial bombs in different provinces including Kampong Cham, Kandal, and Kampong Speu.

Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs). An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions had been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.

According to Yale University, from October 1965 to August 1973, the United States had dropped over 2.75 million tons of ordnance in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.

A Cambodian official report showed that from 1979 to 2024, landmine and ERW explosions had claimed 19,834 lives and maimed 45,252 others in the Southeast Asian country.

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