Iraq and Iran on Sunday exchanged the remains of 1,736 soldiers who had been killed during the eight-year war in the 1980s. At the Mundharya border post in northeast Iraq, Iraq handed over the remains of 570 Iranian soldiers to the Iranian side, while receiving the remains of 1,166 Iraqi soldiers.
Head of Iran’s Committee in charge of search for those missing in action, brigadier Mirfeisal Bager Zadeh said the identity of 120 out of 570 bodies delivered to Iran have not been identified.
The latest exchange took place on June 18 when the two countries swapped the remains of 123 soldiers killed during the 1980-88 war. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri visited Iran in January to try to settle the outstanding "humanitarian" issues and normalize bilateral relations. Over 1 million Iraqis and Iranians were killed in the eight-year war.
Meanwhile, some 900 Iranian prisoners of war (PoWs) from the war are still held at Iraqi detention camps, Iran’s Brigadier general Abdullah Najafi said on Sunday. Speaking to IRNA, he said following negotiations with officials from the International Red Cross Committee, they have also confirmed that a number of Iranian war prisoners are still kept in Iraq. (Albawaba.com)
