Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

As many as 580 cartridges and two assault rifle magazines were found in the Agjabadi region, Azerbaijan’s National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) told Trend on March 10.

The cartridges and magazines were found in the Yukhari Karabakh canal in the region’s Yukhari Salambayli village.

During the inspection of the canal, ANAMA experts found 480 cartridges of 5.45-millimeter caliber and 100 cartridges of 7.62mm caliber, as well as two empty automatic magazines. They transferred the items to the relevant territory of the agency for destruction.

ANAMA was established in 1998 for planning and coordination, management and monitoring of mine action related activities all over the country. The problem of unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan can be divided into the areas that are still under the occupation of Armenian forces and other areas of the country. Most of the unexploded ordnances are the result of Armenian aggression.

Over the past year, ANAMA defused up to 93 million square meters of the Azerbaijan's territory, detecting and defusing 35,117 unexploded ordnance (UXOs), 204 anti-tank mines and 35 anti-personnel mines.

From the beginning of 2018, the agency experts conducted inspections in more than 25,000 square meters in Agdam, Agjabadi, Agstafa, Absheron, Fuzuli, Tartar, Gazakh, Naftalan, Goranboy, Khizi, Shamkir and Lankaran regions as well as in Baku, Ganja and Sumgayit. They inspected six houses and household plots, three cultivated areas, a private house, five pastures, water canals and areas near rural cemeteries, territories of household waste, administrative areas of regional police departments, territories of a concrete plant and markets. As a result, the agency discovered and neutralized more than 1,000 unexploded ordnance and an anti-tank mine.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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