Iraq, Iran to exchange remains of fallen soldiers
November 1st, 2008 - 10:08 pm ICT by IANSBaghdad, Nov 1 (Xinhua) Iraq and Iran have agreed to exchange the remains of each other’s soldiers killed during their eight-year war in the 1980s, an Iraqi government spokesman said Saturday.”The delivery (of soldiers’ remains) is set for Nov 15. We will receive the remains of 200 Iraqis from the Iranians in exchange for the remains of 41 Iranian soldiers,” Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
Dabbagh said that the exchange would take place at a border post but declined to disclose the exact location.
He said the Iraqi government “will continue its efforts to solve pending issues with the Iranian side, particularly, those of humanitarian aspects.”
About one million people from both sides were killed or went missing during the war, which is known as the First Gulf War in the Arab world.
The was began in 1980 when Iraq invaded on Iran following a long border dispute. But Iraqi forces were repelled by the Iranians, who regained all lost territories by June 1982. But the hostilities continued until August 1988 despite several UN calls for a ceasefire.
The two neighbours had last exchanged prisoners of war in 2003.
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Tags: border dispute, border post, dabbagh, first gulf war, humanitarian aspects, iranian side, iranian soldiers, iranians, iraqi government spokesman, prisoners of war