KABUL — As Canadian-sponsored teams dig up and explode thousands of landmines trying to defuse a deadly vestige of Afghanistan's wars, militia men and local warlords have started planting new ones, doctors say.

"It seems incredible, but in this country, there are places that are newly mined," said Dr. Marco Garatti, a surgeon at Emergency Hospital, a nongovernmental surgical centre in Kabul.

"We have seen the injuries. Commanders around Kabul are doing that for their own safety and the local population is not even aware of it. It's a new attitude. Mines are being placed for personal protection."

Garatti said doctors have treated at least a half-dozen injuries from fresh minefields in recent weeks.

In another disturbing trend, doctors say Afghans are increasingly being hit in fields and on paths that are supposed to be cleared of mines.

"It shocks us quite a lot," said Dr. Alberto Cairo who runs the International Red Cross orthopedic clinic in Kabul.

"It shows that there are really millions of mines out there. It's a difficult thing, to dig up a mine, but it only takes a few seconds to put one in."

Canada put a small dent in Afghanistan's landmine supply Thursday, paying for the demolition of 1,300 government landmines near Kabul. While the demolition was described as symbolic, Canada will contribute $10 million this year to the $60-million international effort to demine in the country.

"Landmines kill more people every year than al-Qaida, Taliban, than all the enfeebled and expiring forces that are standing against order and reconstruction and building in this country," said Chris Alexander, the Canadian ambassador in Kabul.

"They're ghosts underneath the ground in this valley and across Afghanistan that occasionally rise up and ruin people's lives."

As the Canadian-sponsored blast eliminated a few mines, Abdul Wahid sat at a clinic Thursday waiting for his new artificial leg. Wahid was one of 608 new amputees who arrived at Cairo's clinic last year, most of them from mines and leftover bombs.

Three months ago Wahid, 26, was walking to work along a path marked with white stones -- the signal that an area is clear of mines -- when he stepped on one. He lost his leg below the knee.

"The mine agencies came through there. They are responsible for what happened to my foot," Wahid said, noting he had used the path to walk to work for the past three years.

"Why did they mark the path with white? It should have been red. This is their fault."

The United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan does most of the mine clearing in Afghanistan. The agency hired 4,500 new mine clearers in the past two years. Most are former Afghan soldiers.

UNMACA spokesman Patrick Fruchet said the program standards are not perfect because of the rapid expansion. A dozen deminers died last year in accidents.

"Obviously there are quality control issues," Fruchet said. "If everyone followed standard operating procedures to the letter, we wouldn't have any deaths."

"We are training new deminers at a very rapid rate. It's not the case that they are all of the same quality."

Garatti, who has worked with mine victims in Eritrea and Cambodia before Afghanistan, said even the best deminers are not perfect.

"Even if a place has been cleared by professionals, it's still only 95 per cent clear," said Garatti, who also practises medicine in Italy.

"Even in our countries in Europe we are seeing unexploded bombs from World War II. If you want to really clear an area, you have to spend millions of zillions of dollars."

Fruchet said communication is also a problem. In some areas, workers are cleaning up areas around irrigation ditches and leaving adjacent fields for later. Farmers are heading into their fields anyway.

Garatti sees a peak in mine accidents every March as farmers begin seeding crops.

The Red Cross reported 728 people were injured in Afghanistan in 2003 by explosions from leftover military hardware, including landmines. Another 129 people died. However, the agency says many cases are not reported. Closer to 100 people are injured or killed by mines each month, according to Red Cross estimates.

In addition to threatening civilians, mines are being used by Afghan insurgents to target international security troops. On Monday an anti-tank mine was found on a road frequently travelled by soldiers. Two Canadian soldiers died last year in a mine explosion that the military believes was deliberately aimed at troops.

While the Afghanistan army officially has no more landmines after Thursday's blast, one general admitted many local commanders probably keep their own supplies.

"Through (disarmament programs) we might be able to get the mines in some caches, places, stores," said Maj.-Gen. Shir Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan defence ministry's chief of operations.

"We hope there aren't any. I'm not sure. But the Ministry of Defence has no mines."