Search on for Hanoi bombs

Vietnam suffered years of American bombing

Vietnamese soldiers are searching two villages near Hanoi for 18 unexploded bombs dropped by the US Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Local officials in Soc Son said that 25 bombs which had not exploded had been dropped during a 1972 Christmas bombing offensive.

A B-52 bomber dropped the bombs on Soc Son

Only six had been unearthed prior to the latest search because local people had not had appropriate equipment.

The United States has been providing equipment and training to help in the search for unexploded ordinance, following President Bill Clinton's recent visit to Vietnam, and one bomb has already been found this week.

Officials are now hoping to locate and defuse all the bombs within the next month.

Offensive

Former President Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of areas around Hanoi on 18 December 1972, after peace talks broke down between Vietnamese and US negotiators.

The US Christmas offensive was ferocious

In an 11-day campaign, US planes dropped around 40,000 tonnes of bombs in the most concentrated air offensive of the war.

The Soc Son bombs were dropped by a B-52, which was later shot down, according to local press reports.

When the war ended in 1975, some 300,000 tonnes of unexploded munitions and 3.5 million landmines were scattered across the country.

Since then, the Vietnamese Government says that more than 38,000 people have been killed as a result of accidental detonations.

Only 15%-20% of the munitions have been located so far.