“Iraq’s fight to defeat the Islamic State won’t end with the military defeat of the group. As the US-backed Iraqi Security Forces liberated Mosul and Tal Afar this summer, retreating fighters continued to leave behind scores of complex improvised explosive devices (IEDs), deliberately hidden in populated areas to kill and injure civilians. US officials tell Al-Monitor that American support for the Herculean effort to clear those vestiges of the three-year war might be needed for decades.”
Source: US faces WWII-scale explosives cleanup in Iraq after Islamic State fight
