News-Info-Alerts

Re: 2nd Kuwaiti POW ID'd in Iraq Grave

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: June 15, 2003

"Kuwait finds remains of second POW at Iraq grave

KUWAIT, June 14 (Reuters) - Kuwait said on Saturday it had identified the remains of a second Kuwaiti national discovered at a mass grave in Iraq as a prisoner of war missing since Iraq's 1990 invasion of the Gulf Arab state.


A statement from a committee charged with searching for POWs said DNA tests showed some of the remains found at a grave near the southern town of Samawa belonged to Ahmed Abdullah Abdul Rasooul al-Qalaaf, the official KUNA reported.

Kuwait said last week it had found the remains of another national at the same grave.

Qalaaf, a soldier, was arrested by occupying Iraqi forces about three months after Baghdad invaded and occupied Kuwait in August 1990, KUNA quoted the statement as saying.

The two men were among 605 so-called prisoners of war, mostly Kuwaiti civilians, missing since the invasion and the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War which freed Kuwait from the seven-month occupation.

The grave site was discovered last month near Samawa, a town about midway between Baghdad and the border with Kuwait.

The POW issue is a deeply emotional one for Kuwait which hopes the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would lead to information on the fate of the missing. Saddam's government had denied all knowledge of their whereabouts.

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