Leftover cluster bomb kills child, guts house

MoH orders probe into liposuction video

A child was killed and his brother was injured in Qusoor while they were playing with a BLU61 type cluster bomb, a remnant from the 1990 Iraqi invasion. The interior ministry said in a statement that concerned authorities checked the shrapnel lodged in the boy’s body, and confirmed it was from a cluster bomb. The children had gone on a picnic and brought home two “foreign objects”. One of the boys was playing with it when it exploded, leading to a fire.

Leftover ordnance from the Iraqi invasion continues to cause sporadic casualties. In December last year, an unidentified man was killed by a landmine in the Salmi desert. The victim’s legs were blown off by the blast. In November, landmines were found on the beach and in the water near a seaside club in Bidaa. According to the interior ministry, the landmines were washed up by the tide on the beach. The mines were removed safely and no injuries were reported.

According to reports, during the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi troops planted millions of mines in Kuwait, with approximately 97.8 percent of Kuwait’s land mined or affected by unexploded ordnance. Heavily mined areas included the northern coast of Kuwait Bay and the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border. Millions of mines have since been recovered, but many are still hidden in coastal and desert areas of Kuwait.

Separately, Health Minister Dr Jamal Al-Harbi yesterday said he has ordered the medical license committee of his ministry to interrogate a surgeon involved in a video showing a woman undergoing a liposuction. “The video, circulated live on social media, shows the surgeon conducting the cosmetic procedure on the woman in contravention of the values and standards of the medical profession,” the minister told KUNA.

“The surgeon is a consultant in general surgery and not plastic surgery, so he is not entitled to conduct such a procedure,” he said. “Moreover, it is unacceptable to film a surgery and circulate such a video, which violates the privacy of the patient and the standards of the profession,” Harbi explained. The video, circulating on Facebook and Twitter, drew resentment in professional and public circles.