News-Info-Alerts

Re: Iran & Iraq Exchange Remains

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 19, 2003

"Iran and Iraq exchange 128 bodies from 1980-88 war

TEHRAN May 18 - Iran and Iraq on Sunday exchanged the remains of 128 soldiers killed in their 1980-88 war, under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the official IRNA news agency said.

The bodies of 45 Iranians and 83 Iraqis were swapped at the Iranian border town of Shalamcheh, IRNA quoted the head of Iran's Committee for Searching for the Missing in Action, Brigadier General Mirfeysal Baqerzadeh, as saying.

The handover marked the first such exchange since the U.S.-led attack on Iraq that toppled President Saddam Hussein. The two countries last exchanged bodies and prisoners of war on March 19, just a day before the war started.

Although the Iran-Iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed on both sides, ended 15 years ago, the fate of thousands of combatants listed as missing in action remains a bone of contention between the two countries.

Iraq denies having Iranian war prisoners, but Iran says there are a number of Iranians still in Iraq.

© UTUSAN MELAYU"