The Ministry of Interior yesterday confirmed that landmines had been found on the beach and in the water near a seaside club in Bidaa last week. According to the ministry’s General Director of Public Relations and Director of the Security Media Department Brigadier Adel Al-Hashash, the landmines were washed up by the tide on the beach, and dated from the time of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

According to reports, during the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi troops planted millions of mines in Kuwait, with approximately 97.8 percent of Kuwait’s land mined or affected by unexploded ordnance. Heavily mined areas included the northern coast of Kuwait Bay and the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border. Millions of mines have since been recovered, but many are still hidden in coastal and desert areas of Kuwait.