The U.S. may have dropped anti-tank mines over a village in southern Iran, the open-source research group Bellingcat reported Thursday, as images posted on social media appeared to show American BLU-91/B scatterable anti-tank landmines in the southern suburbs of Shiraz.
Iranian state media reported that “explosive packages” slightly larger than tuna cans had been dropped by aircraft over the area, and that some had exploded after being handled.
Several people were killed by the devices, Iranian state TV said, and it urged members of the public to report the items’ locations to authorities and not touch them.
CBS News was unable to independently verify the images, and U.S. Central Command declined to comment when asked if the U.S. had deployed the munitions.
Bellingcat cited three independent weapons experts as saying the munitions shown by Iranian state media appeared to be BLU-91/B mines, which are delivered by American Gator anti-tank mine systems. It noted that the U.S. is the only party in the Iran war known to have Gator Scatterable Mines, the system that uses the BLU-91/B devices.
BLU-91/B anti-tank mines are designed to be triggered by a large vehicle driving by and disrupting the mine’s magnetic field, Richard Weir, a senior adviser in the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, told CBS News.
Weir warned, however, that the mines could be detonated by other types of vehicles, and they have a self-destruct setting which could mean they explode hours or even days after being dropped.