ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two men were killed Monday when an artillery shell they were reportedly tampering with exploded inside a stable in Halabja province, police said.
Akam Qutbeddin, spokesperson for Halabja police, told Rudaw's Soran Hussein that the incident occurred after "an artillery shell that the two individuals were tampering with detonated," adding that the two men — identified as Nawzad Marif Salih and Sarhang Kabir Ami — "were trapped under the timber and the roof of the stable and died."
Their bodies were transferred to the forensic medicine department, according to Qutbeddin.
Security forces arrived at the scene and launched an investigation. Police said it was not immediately clear whether anyone else was injured in the explosion.
The incident appeared to involve unexploded wartime ordnance, which remains a persistent danger in the Kurdistan Region.
Tens of millions of landmines and other unexploded ordnance are believed to remain across parts of the Kurdistan Region, particularly along its borders with Iran. Many of the remnants date back to the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted from 1980 to 1988.
According to Iraq's environment ministry, more than 4,500 square kilometers of land across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have been cleared of mines since 2003.
Despite decades of clearance efforts, unexploded ordnance continues to kill and injure civilians. In 2024, landmines and unexploded ordnance killed six people and caused four amputations in Erbil province, according to Ali Abdulrahman, director of the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) in Erbil.
Abdulrahman said in January that IKMAA teams cleared more than 800,799 square meters of land in Erbil province and the Soran administration in 2025. They also detected and destroyed 1,616 anti-personnel mines, two anti-tank mines and 23,163 pieces of unexploded ordnance.
Eleven minefields were fully cleared and returned to their owners, while 283 minefields remained uncleared.
Last updated at 2:18 pm.
