BAGHDAD, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Seven people were killed and 15 others injured while working in depleted uranium removal operations in southern Iraq, officials in the country said on Tuesday.
A Defense Ministry source was quoted by the weekly al Rafideen magazine saying Iraqi teams have been removing depleted uranium reportedly used in munitions fired by allied forces in southern Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.
The source said that during the cleaning operations, land mines exploded in an area that had been the site of military operations between Iraq and coalition forces in 1991.
The explosions killed seven people and wounded 15 others, according to the source who said that special teams were supposedly to have removed the land mines before the personnel working on the removal of depleted uranium began their operations.
Iraq said the depleted uranium has polluted the environment and increased cases of cancer and newly born deformation. U.S. and British officials have denied that depleted uranium, in the amounts used in their weapons, could produce the illnesses.
