1979-1989年苏军占领期间在阿富汗留下了不少地雷，这些地雷隐藏于公路、电力塔、桥梁、废弃房屋等各个角落。 如今喀布尔仍是世界上埋雷最多的城市，每月平均65人踩雷身亡。阿富汗适合种植鸦片，但是大片土地因为可能藏雷不能耕种而浪费。

The Soviet occupation of the country from 1979 until the final withdrawal in 1989 saw the urban centers controlled by Soviet troops and Soviet-backed militia, locked in constant low-intensity warfare with various groups of Mujahedeen fighters.Land mines were deployed widely by both sides and hidden in every conceivable terrain. Roads, electricity pylons, bridges and abandoned houses were all heavily mined. Even the country's largest dam, Karaka, and the pylons linking the dam to Kandahar, the country's second city, were miined.Today, vast swathes of the country remain littered with an assortment of mines - from anti-personnel to anti-tank mines. Kabul is still the most heavily mined capital city in the world. Land mines kill or maim on average around 65 people per month. Recent fighting between coalition forces and Taliban fighters in the South of the country have brought a new set of mines - mainly handmade - into circulation.While opium poppy cultivation, a traditional mainstay of Afghan farming, can succeed on semi-arid terrain, large tracts of fertile land are too dangerous to farm which has caused wide-spread depopulation of the countryside.