Trump expands landmine use for the US military by loosening restrictions on these brutal weapons

AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel

• The Trump administration has overturned Obama-era restrictions on the use of anti-personnel landmines, weapons targeting individual persons.
• While the Obama administration largely committed the US to upholding the 1997 treaty banning their use — with the exception of the defense of South Korea — the new policy significantly expands their use.
• "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 White House said in a statement Friday announcing the policy change.
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The Trump administration is reversing limitations on landmine use set by the Obama administration, giving the US military more freedom to use these weapons that are banned by countries around the world, the White House revealed in a statement Friday.

The US is not a signatory to the 1997 treaty prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines (APLs) which more than 160 countries have signed, but the Obama administration committed the US in June 2014 to upholding "the spirit and humanitarian aims of the" treaty. The only exception, the Obama administration revealed that September, was the defense of South Korea.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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