PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian Mine Action Center's (CMAC) bomb expert team safely removed on Thursday an unexploded AN-M66 aerial bomb from the Chaktomuk River in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. CMAC Director General Heng Ratana said the United States-made bomb, which weighed 2,000 pounds and contained roughly 1,000 pounds of explosives, was found when workers were cleaning up the riverbed near the Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel, opposite the Royal Palace. 'CMAC bomb experts have closely worked with the Phnom Penh municipal authorities to transport this bomb to a safe area for CMAC's experts to take further action,' he said. 'If [this bomb exploded], it could cause huge damage to hotels, houses or even the Royal Palace,' Ratana said. It was estimated that between 1965 and 1973, the US dropped about 2.7 million tons of explosives on 113,716 locations in Cambodia. The Southeast Asian country is littered with mines and unexploded ordnances due to conflicts between the mid-1960s and 1998. An estimated 4 to 6 million land mines and other munitions were left over from these conflicts.
