Cambodian, U.S. divers recover war-left Mk 82 bomb from Mekong River

Cambodian and U.S. explosive ordnance disposal divers on Thursday recovered a war- left unexploded Mark 82 (Mk 82) bomb from the Mekong River after spending two-hours to remove it from the river bottom to the shore.

The bomb, which was dropped from a U.S. warplane between 1965 and 1973, weighed 227 kilograms with a length of 2.22 meters and diameter of 273 millimeters, said Him Vandy, chief of planning and operation department of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC).

The team found the bomb after a fisherman reported to local authority last month that he felt a large bomb in a 6-meter water depth while he fished in the river.

"This is the first time that we practically recover an underwater bomb after we have been trained by the Golden West Humanitarian Organization (a U.S. non-profit entity that specializes in mine and UXO clearance) since December 2013," he said.

Cambodia is one of the world's worst countries suffered from mines and unexploded ordnances (UXOs) as the results of three decades of war and internal conflicts from the mid-1960s until 1998. An estimated 4 to 6 million land mines and other munitions left over from the conflicts.

According to Him Vandy, between 1965 and 1973, the United States dropped about 2.7 million tons of explosives on 113,716 locations in Cambodia.

Since 1979 to February 2015, a total of 64,495 landmine and UXO casualties were recorded. Of the casualties, 19,708 people were killed and 44,787 were either injured or amputated, according to the figures of CMAC. Endit