More Than 600,000 Land Mines Planted By Turkey Along 900-Kilometer Border With Syria

In this June 17, 2010 file photo land mine experts work in mined land in the Karkemish archaeological site at the Turkey-Syria border in Gaziantep province, Turkey. Starting in the 1950s, Turkish forces planted more than 600,000 U.S.-made “toe poppers” _ mines designed to maim, not kill _ and other land mines along much of its 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria, which runs from the Mediterranean Sea to Iraq. The aim was to stop smugglers whose cheap black market goods undercut the Turkish economy and later to thwart Kurdish rebels from infiltrating Turkey’s southeast.

In this June 17, 2010 file photo, a land mine expert works in mined land in the Karkemish archaeological site at the Turkey-Syria border in Gaziantep province, Turkey. <AP Photo/File>

In this Nov. 19, 2012 file photo, a land mine sign at the Turkey-Syria border is seen from in Akinci village in Gaziantep province, Turkey. <AP Photo/Christopher Torchia, File>