Scores injured in a blast near a Nineveh market

Shafaq News/ A blast from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) left six persons injured in Nineveh, a source reported on Thursday.

The source told Shafaq News Agency that the explosion took place near a livestock market in Nineveh's district of Tal Afar this afternoon.

The blast, according to preliminary investigations, was caused by an explosive war remnant left behind by members of the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group that took over swathes of Iraq's area in 2014.

Iraq is littered with landmines from decades of armed conflict. Millions were planted by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (1979-2003) during the Iran-Iraq War back in the 1980s. Countless more were planted by ISIS over 2014-15.

According to a 2020 report by the United Nations Mine Action Service, war remnants contaminate almost three billion square meters, including more than 250 million square meters in the Kurdistan region alone. This makes Iraq the most mined country in the world.

Long after wars have ended, these conflict relics continue to wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary Iraqis. It has been estimated that mines have killed at least 10,000 Iraqis and injured 24,000 in the past two decades.