Some sources report that the 3rd-century Chancellor (China) Zhuge Liang of the Kingdom of Shu in China invented a land mine type device. Land mines continue to kill or injure at least 4,300 people every year, even decades after the ends of the conflicts for which they were placed. However, as of 2013, the only governments that still lay landmines are Myanmar in its Internal conflict, and Syria in its civil war. Land mines are currently used in large quantities mostly for this first purpose, thus their widespread use in the demilitarized zones (DMZs) of likely flashpoints such as Cyprus, Afghanistan and Korea. Land mines were designed for two main uses: to create defensive tactical barriers, channeling attacking forces into predetermined fire zones or slowing an invasion force's progress to allow reinforcements to arrive and to act as passive area-denial weapons (to deny the enemy use of valuable terrain, resources or facilities when active defense of the area is not desirable or possible). 3.1 Firing mechanisms and initiating actions.Currently, a total of 161 nations are party to the Ottawa treaty. With pressure from a number of campaign groups organised through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global movement to prohibit their use led to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. They can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming the economy and citizens of many developing nations. The use of land mines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. Though many types of improvised explosive devices ('IEDs') can technically be classified as land mines, the term land mine is typically reserved for manufactured devices designed to be used by recognized military services, whereas IED is used for makeshift devices assembled by paramilitary, insurgent, or terrorist groups. Nowadays, in common parlance, land mines generally refer to devices specifically manufactured as anti-personnel or anti-vehicle weapons. These killing tunnels ('mines') were at first collapsed to destroy targets located above, but they were later filled with explosives and detonated in order to cause even greater devastation. The name originates from the ancient practice of military mining, where tunnels were dug under enemy fortifications or troop formations by sappers. The device may cause damage either by a direct blast or by fragments that are thrown by the blast. Such devices are typically detonated automatically by way of pressure from the target stepping or driving on it, though other detonation mechanisms may be possible. Center: Valmara 69 (a bounding mine), left: VS-50Ī land mine is an explosive device, concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near the device.

Wikipedia land of mine