In Iraq's Baiji, mines turn farms into killing fields

One man lost his uncle. Another is mourning for two sons. Farmers and herders in Iraq's Baiji say mines left by the Islamic State group turned their beloved orchards into killing fields.

The improvised explosive devices, planted by jihadists trying to fend off Iraqi troops in 2015, have also discouraged scores of families from returning to their battered farming towns around Baiji, in the north of the country.

"Daesh's ghosts are still here. Their crimes are still there, under the earth," said local official Abu Bashir, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

His thin face contorted into a grimace as he recalled his personal loss to those "ghosts" -- both his sons.

"We came back in March 2018 and found the area booby-trapped. There was nowhere we could feel safe," he told AFP.

"As the kids were playing, a bomb exploded under my six-year-old son who was outside the house. He was killed immediately."
"A man bitten by a snake will be afraid of a rope, as the saying goes. After my two boys were killed, I'm afraid of everything."
"One of these homes blew up on my uncle. I saw it with my own eyes."
"This soil means so much to us and we hope this kind of thing -- losing our loved ones, our children, our homes -- doesn't happen on it."