Saudi Arabia has returned to Baghdad the corpse of an Iraqi soldier killed during a clash along the Saudi border, said TV reports on Sunday.
The corpse was handed over to Iraqi officials through the Red Cross, a Saudi official told AFP on Sunday.
"At Saudi Arabia's request, the International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the body of the dead Iraqi soldier on Tuesday," said Prince Turki bin Mohammad, an undersecretary at the interior ministry.
He said Taqi Abdul Amir Hussein was shot during an incursion by Iraqi troops into Saudi territory.
Saudi Arabia informed the United Nations on June 5 that Iraq had launched a border attack, but Iraq denied it.
According to Saudi Ambassador to the UN Fawzi Bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi, an Iraqi patrol crossed the border on May 23 and traveled about 400 meters (yards) into Uwayqilah in Saudi territory, opening fire on a Saudi border patrol.
Saudi troops retaliated and in the exchange of fire "a number of Saudi soldiers were wounded."
Riyadh insisted it was not an isolated event, and listed a dozen such aleged incidents since March.
Baghdad regularly accuses Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of violating Iraq's borders by providing bases for US and British warplanes that enforce flight bans over Iraq.
Following the border clash, Saudi Arabia last month seized a disused Iraqi oil pipeline running through the kingdom to the Red Sea.
Iraqi threats of aggression had "destroyed any rationale" for maintaining the pipeline, Riyadh said.
Iraq broke off diplomatic ties with the kingdom during the 1991 Gulf War, when Saudi forces fought with the US-led international coalition against the Iraqi army – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
