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Sunday, October 2, 2011

Libya uprising: Deadly legacy of Gaddafi landmines


Dozens of civilians, including many children, have been killed or injured in recent weeks in Libya by landmines planted by Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces and unexploded munitions they left behind.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from Zlitan, where more than one person a day has been hurt or killed by mines and bombs in the past four weeks but where there are no trained de-mining teams.

His face scorched and scarred, 13-year-old Abdulfatah Hazaz is lying in a hospital bed.

The boy's left arm is swathed in bandages, the bones shattered, his stomach peppered with shrapnel, his spleen ruptured.

Last week, Abdulfatah was fooling around with his brother outside their home. Now he is another casualty of Libya's fight for freedom.

"We were playing in the back yard. I was running and I jumped," remembers Abdulfatah. "Suddenly something exploded and I fell down. My brother fell too. I stood up. I ran to the house shouting and screaming and they brought me here."

His father Ibrahim sits by the bed trying to comfort him.

"I heard the explosion, I was inside the house" he tells me, "there was nothing but sound and smoke."

The boy's older brother, Zuhair, was killed instantly. But Abdulfatah has not yet been told Zuhair is dead.

"How could I tell him? He's between life and death at the moment," his father says. "I am afraid that if I tell him then maybe something will happen to him. He's asking about his brother all the time though."

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