Iraq and Iran swap remains of 111 soldiers killed in 1980-1988 war
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi official says Iraq and Iran have exchanged the bodies of 111 soldiers killed during the two countries’ 1980-1988 war.
Mahdi al-Tamimi, an official in Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry, says the remains of 98 Iranians and 13 Iraqis were returned to their native countries during a ceremony on Tuesday.
Al-Tamimi says the swap at a border checkpoint near the southern Iraqi city of Basra brings the number of Iraqi bodies received since 1996 to 2,262. Iranians have received 1,597 bodies of their fallen.
More than 1 million people from both sides were killed or went missing during the eight-year war.
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