TerrificLibyan Militants Now Have Deadly Chinese Landmines

The Type 84 makes an appearance in Benghazi

by ARNAUD DELALANDE

On Dec. 8, 2016, a social media account supporting the Libyan National Armyone of
two main forces battling for control of war-torn Libyapublished footage of an unused,
Chinese-made Type 84 remotely-delivered anti-vehicle landmine along with a Type 122-
15 ATML rocket.

The rocket was apparently found in the Ganfouda district of Benghazi, in a neighborhood
that the Tobruk-based LNA had seized from the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council,
an Islamist militia.

The footage apparently marks the first appearance of the Chinese mine in Libya since
2011and, more importantly, the first evidence that a Libyan Islamic group has gotten
its hands on the munition.

The Type 84 mine is an air-dispersed landmine with an explosively-formed penetrator

warhead that can penetrate up to 110 millimeters of rolled homogeneous armor.

The Type 122-15 ATML rocketthe export version of Chinas GBL212 122- millimeter
rocketincludes an ejection charge, a main body containing six scatterable mines and a
nose cone. The type is launched from BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems.

The GLD220 variant of the Type 84 disarms itself after 72 hoursand also features a
self-destruct function that can trigger between four and 72 hours after deployment. Once
the rocket launches, a time fuse activates at a predetermined distance. The rockets head
bursts, ejecting the mines, which then descend under parachutes.
Type 12215 rocket. Capture via the author
During the descent, the three legs at the feet of the mines open downward to form a tip
that pierces the ground. The mine is then armed.

The Type 84 is not a cluster munition, unlike the Type 81 which can deliver explosive
submunitions. Hezbollah used Type 81s during the 2006 conflict in south Lebanon.

Still, the Type 84 mine is extremely dangerous and should not be handled or disturbed,
as it is equipped with a sensitive magnetic influence fuse that also functions as an
inherent anti-disturbance feature, wrote Mark Hiznay, a researcher in the arms division
of Human Rights Watch.

The magnetic influence fuse explodes the mine when it detects a change in its
immediate magnetic environment. That change can result from a vehicle passing over the
mine or a person approaching it while wearing or carrying a sufficient amount of ferrous
metal, such as military equipment or even a camera.

Additionally, given the sensitivity of the fuse, any change in orientation or movement of
the mine may cause the fuse to function.

The first use of the Type 84 landmine in Libya was reported by C.J. Chiversof The New
York Times and confirmed by Human Rights Watch. The rockets were launched on May
5, 2011 in the port area of the city of Misrata by forces loyal to then-Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi.

Two guards patrolling the port in a truck ran over two of the mines. One guard was
seriously wounded in the blast. An international deminer was killed in Dafniya in March
2012 and two injured in November 2011 when they tried to defuse a Type 84
submunition.
The LNA Air Force is known to have used cluster munitionssince at least 2015 in its
attacks on Islamist militia in Derna and Benghazi.

Since the current round of fighting broke out in Libya in 2014, civilians in eastern Libya
have found themselves trapped between the LNAs cluster bombs, indiscriminate Emirati
air strikes and the Islamists dispersed landmines launched by Islamist militia fighters.

Libya is not the only war zone where the Type 84 mine poses a risk. In April 2014, a
video posted by the Syrian Dignity Brigade depicted Type 84 submunitions and
components in the area near Sawaysa in the Syrian province of Quneitra in the Golan
Heights.

The rockets were reportedly launched by Syrian government forces.