The American newspaper, Washington Post, has revealed, based on images published on social media, that American forces have used landmines in a residential area in southern Iran. This marks the first documentation of American use of these weapons in over 20 years.
Four munitions experts, who reviewed images dated March 26 at the request of the newspaper, confirmed that they show American anti-tank mines of the type B91-BLU, which are typically deployed from aircraft as part of a mine dispersal system known as Gator.
Details of the Incident
The newspaper noted that the United States is the only party possessing this system in the ongoing American-Israeli military campaign against Iran. A report from the American military states that Gator mines are primarily used to "disrupt, immobilize, divert, or obstruct enemy troop movements," with minefields deployed by the system averaging about 650 meters in length and 200 meters in width, making them suitable for blocking access routes to specific military concentrations.
According to the same report, the containers dropped from the air to disperse these mines often carry a mix of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. However, experts confirmed that the available images do not show any evidence of the use of anti-personnel mines in this incident.
The images of the mines were initially shared on social media by independent Canadian journalist Dimitri Lascaris and Iranian state media, while the open-source investigation group Bellingcat was the first to draw attention to and analyze these images. The photos were taken outside the city of Shiraz, approximately 3 miles from Iranian ballistic missile sites.
Background & Context
The newspaper quoted military analyst Nicol Graeuski stating that the mine sites could complicate movement around those mountainous facilities, noting that "Iranian ballistic missile launch platforms have been operating near the bases throughout the war." It is worth mentioning that at least two adjacent sites have suffered damage since the campaign began a month ago.
Although these mines are designed to target armored vehicles by sensing their "magnetic signature," Brian Castner, a weapons investigator at Amnesty International, warned that they "still pose a grave risk to civilians." He explained that they can sometimes explode when civilians attempt to move them, in addition to being equipped with a self-destruct mechanism that may cause them to detonate hours or days after deployment.
Impact & Consequences
On the ground, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported in a post on Telegram that one person was killed and several others injured due to what they described as "box-like explosive devices." This news coincided with testimony from journalist Lascaris, who confirmed seeing four landmines during a tour near Shiraz and published a photo of a bloodstain in an area where eyewitnesses reported the death of a father (aged 31) there.
While the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) refrained from commenting, Pentagon records indicate that the last known American use of similar mines (anti-tank) was during the Gulf War in 1991, while the last use of anti-personnel mines was recorded in Afghanistan in 2002.
This development has reignited human rights concerns regarding the expanded deployment of these weapons, especially after the administration of former President Donald Trump last year rescinded a policy established during the Biden administration that prohibited the use of anti-personnel mines outside the Korean Peninsula.
Regional Significance
Commenting on this, Sarah Yager, director of the Human Rights Watch office in Washington, stated: "If the U.S. military's use of the Gator system is confirmed and results in civilian casualties, it clearly demonstrates why decades of efforts to ban these weapons cannot be reversed without causing severe harm."
The use of mines in armed conflicts raises significant concerns in the region, where many countries suffer from the effects of landmines that continue to threaten civilian lives for decades after conflicts end. This situation requires the international community to take serious steps to ban these weapons and ensure civilian protection.