Posted on 03/12/2012 3:36:57 PM PDT by U-238
The Syrian military in the past month planted a band of anti-personnel mines along stretches of the border with Turkey, where last year more than 10,000 Syrian refugees fled the Assad regime's crackdown on the pro-democracy "Arab Spring" uprising, Syrian witnesses said. After a family of five were reported severely injured in a new minefield last month, Syrian civilians, operating with primitive means — an axe, a rope and the guidance of a volunteer who'd had mine- clearance training in military service — unearthed hundreds of those mines and reopened the way to safety, volunteers said. The mines were Russian made PMN-2 pressure mines. They consist of a green plastic casing and a black cruciform-like pressure plate, which detonates the charge inside. They were laid about a foot apart in two bands that were set about two feet apart, just three or four yards from the fence that demarcates the border with Turkey, according to the volunteer who directed the mine-clearance operation. Tall and slight of frame, the volunteer, 28, who gave himself the nom de guerre, Rajol al Hadidi, ("Iron Man"), left Syria one week ago carrying more than a dozen mines. He crossed into Turkey to seek the advice of military defectors in the Free Syrian Army on how to defuse the mines. "I know 10 sorts of mines - anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, but not this one," he told McClatchy. ""We didn't know what explosive material was contained in it, but we thought it would create a crater of 3 or 4 meters (10 feet)," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Some mine experts consulted by McClatchy said there is no way to defuse the PMN-2 other than to detonate it with a small explosive charge
Herd of goats/sheep will work.
Mozambique has had a terrible mine problem. They have taught the kids to push the Hippo Roller http://www.hipporoller.org/ in front of them when walking back from the borehole (water well).
If there is a mine, the Hippo roller full of water absorbs most of the blast & shrapnel. Not perfect, but better that stepping on a mine yourself!
Thaks U-238.
Or you could just probe them and mark them and walk around them in lanes delineated by white tape (hi-vis in low light). Any that are in the way of your lane- flip them with a grappling hook and a length of rope to thwart an anti-lift mechanism, and have some crazy/brave SOB rig a lateral pull with an engineer stake (or improvised equivalent) to move them out of the lane if they didn’t go up.
Maybe simpler- give your mine probing teams cans of white spray paint. When your probers hit something that sounds like ‘tuk tuk tuk’, dig just enough to see the body of the mine to confirm it, then spray a big, solid 8” dot right on top of it.
No he know that is where the weapons and ammo come in. Not our business.
That is about correct. He wants to keep them in.
Excellent Point. You hit the nail on the head.
The Russians used cattle during WWII to remove mines.
“The Russians used cattle during WWII to remove mines.”
So Pravada was correct?
The Russians invented HAMBURGER!
Go low tech if you have to remove a landmine.
I ended up in a minefield in Vietnam. Thankfully, after the first two went off, I was able to use my bayonet to probe my way to a set of tanks tracks and walked out safely.
After I got out, a platoon commander walked over to talk to the tank commander, hit a mine and was killed. At the time, the tank commander was leaning out of the cupola to talk to him. A piece of shrapnel went up under the tankers flak jacket and killed him also.
We had 8 KIA and 41 wounded there.
The minefield scene in “Kelly’s Heroes” is hard to watch.
My uncle during Vietnam spent 1967-1970 finding mines in Vietnam
Now, the mines are made out of plastic and they are very hard to detect.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.