Russian Demining Unit Arrives To Laos To Clear Unexploded Civil War Shells - Ministry

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its mine clearance team had arrived to the Lao settlement of Lak Sao to begin removing unexploded ordnance left over from the 1960s civil war.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2018) The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its mine clearance team had arrived to the Lao settlement of Lak Sao to begin removing unexploded ordnance left over from the 1960s civil war.

"In the days to come, military engineers will conduct reconnaissance, prepare equipment and then start demining,' the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the 36-person team will spend five months conducting humanitarian mine clearance in the Lak Sao settlement, some 217 miles east of the country's capital of Vientianne. The area contains unexploded shells that were left as a result of US air raids during the Laotian Civil War, the ministry added.

The Laotian Civil War of 1959-1975 was fought between the Lao communist movement and the ruling government at the time and is considered one of the proxy wars of the Cold War period.