Iraqis killed by unexploded bombs from Gulf War conflict

The official Iraqi News Agency has said that more than five hundred people have been killed in Basra in the past seven years by bombs that failed to detonate when they were dropped during the Gulf War.

At least five hundred others have been injured.

The agency said Iraqi civil defence teams have defused nearly seventy-thousand of the unexploded bombs, but have been hampered by a lack of equipment.

Basra was heavily targetted during the conflict.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service