Iraq hands over remains of 21 Kuwait missing persons since Gulf War

This picture shows a close-up view from the outside of the interior of al-Qurain Martyr’s Museum, home to a battle which lasted 10 hours between invading Iraqi troops and a group of Kuwaiti fighters during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, in Kuwait City on July 27, 2020 [YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images]

The Iraqi government has on Wednesday handed over the remains of 21 missing persons to Kuwait’s embassy in Baghdad, who are believed to be Kuwaiti captives from the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

The handover took place near Baghdad International Airport in the presence of representatives of the Iraqi Defence Ministry, the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Kuwait News Agency quoted acting chargé d’affaires at the Kuwaiti embassy in Iraq, Mohammad Al-Wuqayyan, stating that: “Handing over the remains is part of the efforts relating to the Kuwaiti missing prisoners file.”

Al-Wuqayyan explained that the file is being supervised by two international committees headed by the ICRC, with Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the US, the UK and France as members, as well as UNAMI as an observer.

The Kuwaiti official added that he believes, according to initial indications, that the remains belong to Kuwaiti captives and missing persons found in the Samawah desert, south of Iraq.

Kuwait’s General Department of Criminal Evidence will perform DNA tests on the remains to match the results with the database of Kuwaiti and foreign captives and missing persons.

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