Cambodia discovers, safely removes another war-left US aerial bomb MK-82: official
PHNOM PENH: A Cambodia's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) expert team has found and safely removed another war-left US-made MK-82 aerial bomb in southern Kandal province, a mine clearance chief said late on Wednesday (May 7).
Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), said the bomb, weighing about 230 kg, had been discovered in a soil pit in Angk Snuol district.
"Buried for about half a century (50 years), it's still new," he wrote on social media, with photographs showing experts defusing the bomb.
Ratana said experts safely removed and transported it to the CMAC's disposal center for further action on Wednesday.
According to the official, since the start of the year, the EOD expert team had unearthed and safely removed at least eight MK-82 aerial bombs in different provinces, including Kampong Cham, Kandal, Kampong Speu, and Kampong Thom.
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 the 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 Cambodia's 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. - Xinhua
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