Iraq returns bodies of Kuwaiti soldiers killed in Gulf War

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The remains of 48 Kuwaiti prisoners of war killed in the 1991 Gulf War, which were recently exhumed from mass graves in Iraq, were returned to Kuwait on Thursday.

Officials from both countries met at the Abdali border crossing in Iraq’s southern province of Basra early on Thursday, according to Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA.

“Kuwait have successfully received the remains of the Kuwaiti prisoners from Iraqi authorities,” KUNA reported.

“The remains will undergo DNA tests in order to check the identity of the dead bodies,” the agency added.

Kuwait has a DNA database of Kuwaiti prisoners of war (POWs) lost during the 1990-91 conflict with Iraq. Experts will now begin the process of matching DNA samples in the hope of identifying the remains.

KUNA said Iraqi authorities had previously handed 32 DNA samples.

Rabie al-Adsani, head of the Kuwaiti delegation at the international tripartite commission and sub-committee on POWs, thanked Iraq’s ministry of defense, the ICRC, the UN mission, and the technical committee composed of Saudi, American, British, and French experts for their help.

Ahmed Manfi Jawda, governor of Muthana province, announced the recovery of the Kuwaiti remains on July 27.

The Kuwaiti soldiers had been taken prisoner by Saddam Hussein’s forces during his invasion of Kuwait in 1990. They were taken to the deserts of Samawa where they appear to have been executed.

Preliminary analysis of the remains in Baghdad indicated they were Kuwaiti soldiers, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Najah al-Shimari, the Iraqi defense minister, received the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Iraq (UNAMI) Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert in Baghdad on Tuesday to discuss the return of the Kuwaiti remains.

Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 causing international outcry. An international coalition led by the United States was sent to the region, forcing Iraqi troops to retreat.

Iraq’s Baathist regime took hundreds of Kuwaiti personnel prisoner. The fate of many remains a mystery.

Iraq has paid billions of dollars in reparations to the Kuwaiti government to pay for war damages and to compensate thefts. The funds come from a percentage of Iraq’s oil sales.

Kuwait and Iraq today enjoy much better relations. Kuwait’s ruling Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah visited Iraq on July 24 to discuss current tensions in the Persian Gulf between Iran and the US.

Kuwait was one of the first destinations of top Iraqi officials when the new cabinet was formed late last year. Iraq’s parliamentary speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi’s first official trip abroad was to Kuwait in September 2018 and Iraqi President Barham Salih visited two months later.

Three other mass graves have recently been discovered in Iraq’s southern Muthanna province, found to contain the remains of Kurds killed during Saddam’s Anfal campaign.

Saddam’s regime killed an estimated 182,000 Kurds over the course of the 1986-1989 campaign.

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