“Iraqi and Iranian authorities exchanged today the mortal remains of 46 Iranian and 4 Iraqi soldiers killed in the 1980-88 war between the two countries,” stated the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Iraq that oversaw the transfer.
The two sides have made several similar exchanges over the years, but this is the first to take place in Iraq’s Wasit province.
Iranian officials welcomed the return of their soldiers with a ceremony in Ilam, Tasnim News reported.
The bodies will be transferred to Tehran, according to IRNA.
Saddam Hussein launched a war on Iraq’s neighbour, hoping for an easy victory over an Iran just after the Islamic revolution.
The conflict became a savage war of attrition that raged for eight years and is still taking casualties from the Kurds who live on the mountainsides along the border littered with hundreds of thousands of landmines.
