When the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan, it left Afghani roads, villages and fields sown with tens of thousands of land mines. According to the international Landmine Monitor Report for 2006,

 
“Afghanistan emerged from more than two decades of conflict, starting in the 1970s, as one of the countries most contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Security forces have continued to discover huge quantities of abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) and unexploded ordnance (UXO).^[28] The Landmine Impact Survey, which completed fieldwork in January 2005, reported 2,245 casualties in the two years before the ...   more »