PHNOM PENH, July 19 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) expert team has found a war-left U.S.-made MK-82 aerial bomb in the central Kampong Chhnang province, a mine clearance chief said on Saturday.
Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), said the bomb, weighing more than 230 kg, had been discovered in Samaky Meanchey district's Thlak Vean village.
"Our EOD experts neutralized the bomb and transported it safely to the CMAC's disposal center on Saturday morning," he wrote on social media, with photographs showing experts defusing the bomb.
According to the official, since the start of the year, the EOD expert team has unearthed and safely removed at least nine MK-82 aerial bombs and a 372-kg M117 aerial bomb in different provinces.
Cambodia is one of countries worst affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs). An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions had been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts.
According to Yale University, from October 1965 to August 1973, the United States had dropped over 2.75 million tons of ordnance in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.
A Cambodian official report showed that from 1979 to June 2025, landmine and ERW explosions had claimed 19,843 lives and maimed 45,267 others in the Southeast Asian country. ■