ICRC: Iraq, Iran swap remains of 81 soldiers killed in 1980-1988 war

Iraq and Iran have exchanged the remains of 81 soldiers who were killed in the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.

“Under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the remains of nine unidentified Iraqi soldiers and 72 human remains of Iranian soldiers had been returned to their country,” the ICRC said in a statement.

According to the statement, the exchange took place at the Shalamcheh border crossing between the two countries, near the city of Basra in southern Iraq.

In 2008, Iraq and Iran signed an agreement, under the ICRC auspices, regarding the exchange of information and the handing over of the remains of missing persons during the war.

Since then, the remains of hundreds of soldiers have been returned, but “30+ years have passed since the end of the Iraq-Iran war. Yet, thousands of families are still waiting to find answers about their missing loved ones,” the ICRC said on Twitter.

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Last October, the two sides exchanged the remains of 31 soldiers; 11 Iraqis and 20 Iranians, and in April the remains of 63 Iranians and five Iraqis were repatriated.

The Iran-Iraq War broke out in September 1980, days after Baghdad cancelled the Algiers Agreement signed in 1975, which aimed to settle a border dispute between the two countries. After years of violent war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, a ceasefire between the two countries came into effect in August 1988.