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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Iran, Iraq Exchange Remains of 1980-1988 War

Iran and Iraq have exchanged a total of 142 bodies of soldiers killed during their 1980-1988 war. The bodies, 78 Iranians and 64 Iraqis, were exchanged in Iran's Dehloran in western province of Ilam on Tuesday following a meeting attended by delegations from the two neighboring countries.


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Iran and Iraq have exchanged a total of 142 bodies of soldiers killed during their 1980-1988 war, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday in Tehran.

The bodies, 78 Iranians and 64 Iraqis, were exchanged in Iran's Dehloran in western province of Ilam on Tuesday following a meeting attended by delegations from the two neighboring countries.

Brigadier mir-Feisal Baqerzadeh, Iran's Head of the Committee in Charge of Searching for Bodies of Those Missing in Action (MIA), called for continuation of exchange of bodies of soldiers of the two countries.

The Iranian and Iraqi officials should make greater efforts to settle the existing obstacles in the way of exchange of bodies of those killed during the Iran-Iraq war, he urged.

In August, the two countries exchanged each other 122 bodies of soldiers as a follow up to joint search operations launched by Iranian and Iraqi authorities in locating the bodies of those killed in the 8-year bloody war on both sides.

The 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war cost some one million lives from both sides. Each side has accused the other of holding thousands of war-time soldiers since the end of the war.

The issue of prisoners of war (POW) and the rival governments' support for opposition groups remain the main stumbling blocks to the normalization of relations between the two neighbors.




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