Première Guerre du Golfe : 10 mars 1991 Un soldat koweïtien veille sur un énorme stock de munitions irakiennes abandonnées, principalement des bombes de mortier et des mines terrestres, sur la plage d'Anjafa à Koweït City. En arrière-plan se trouve un char chinois de type 69 dans son revêtement.
5681 x 8560 px | 48,1 x 72,5 cm | 18,9 x 28,5 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
10 mars 1991
Lieu:
Anjafa Beach, Kuwait City.
Informations supplémentaires:
Cette image peut avoir des imperfections car il s’agit d’une image historique ou de reportage.
This on Anjafa Beach in the south-east of Kuwait City. The city was littered with all types of abandoned ordnance after the Iraq Army fled: mortar bombs, land mines, hand grenades, bullets. The Kuwaitis stockpiled them on the sea front. The black, plastic landmines are Soviet PMN-1 anti-personnel mines. The sand-coloured landmines are Italian Valmara 69 anti-personnel mines, also known as V-69, which, apart from one at the feet of the soldier, have had their fuses removed. When a V-69 is triggered, a spring-loaded firing-pin fires a percussion cap inside the fuse, which ignites a propelling charge at the base of the mine. The propellant charge launches the mine out of the ground and into the air. When it reaches a height of approximately 50 cm, taking less than a second, an integral tether wire (connecting it to the plastic body from which it was launched) tugs on a spring-loaded firing pin in the body of the mine, detonating the main explosive charge. Embedded in a plastic fragmentation sleeve surrounding the main explosive charge are approximately 1, 000 pre-cut steel fragments, which are projected at high velocity in all directions. The mine has a lethal radius of 25 metres. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, coalition forces were quick to send their armies to both defend Saudi Arabia and to successfully oust the Iraqi forces by the end of February 1991.
