Washington, Feb 1 (IANS): US President Donald Trump has lifted restrictions on the deployment of anti-personnel landmines by American forces, a move that reverses a 2014 Obama administration ban on the use of such weapons, which applied everywhere in the world except for in the defence of South Korea.
"The Department of Defense has determined that restrictions imposed on American forces by the Obama administration's policy could place them at a severe disadvantage during a conflict against our adversaries," the BBC quoted a White House statement as saying on Friday.
"The President is unwilling to accept this risk to our troops," it said, adding that Trump has given the all-clear for the use of "non-persistent" landmines that can be switched off remotely rather than remaining buried beneath the ground.
US forces will now be free to use the weapons across the world "in exceptional circumstances", the White House further said.
The US is not a signatory to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which restricts the development or use of anti-personnel land mines.
The Obama-era ban applied to the US military everywhere but on the Korean Peninsula. That exception was made under pressure from military planners, to protect US troops based across the demilitarized zone from the North Korean military.
The former President also ordered the destruction of landmine stockpiles not made to defend South Korea.
But the Trump administration has now scrapped that policy, stating that the president was "rebuilding" the US military, the BBC report said.
But the new order has received flak from activists.
"The resumption of the use of anti-personnel landmines and continued stockpiling and production of these indiscriminate weapons is militarily unnecessary and dangerous," Xinhua news agency quoted Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, as saying.
Rachel Stohl, an arms control expert at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington, called the decision "inexplicable".
"I have no idea if it's posturing or a reality that the US is claiming back the right to use landmines," she told the BBC. "It's inexplicable given all we know about these deadly weapons and the amount of money the US has spent demining around the world," she added.
In 2017, more than 7,000 casualties were caused by mines and other explosive remnants of war, including nearly 2,800 deaths, according to the Landmine Monitor.
More than 120,000 people were killed or injured by landmines between 1999-2017, according to the same group. Nearly half the victims are children, with 84 per cent being boys.
Civilians make up 87 per cent of casualties.