Iraq and Iran swap of remains of people who were lost in the war

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Ministry of Defense's Human Rights Directorate reported on Monday the swap of remains of those who were lost in the Iraq- Iran war (1980 - 1988).

The Directorate stated “according to the 2008 agreement between Iraq and Iran, the remains were swapped today at the Shalamcheh crossing border.”

Furthermore, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) oversaw the process of handing over and receiving the remains, which was attended by some officers and associates. However, the number of remains that were swapped was not revealed.

This is not the first exchange, as several groups of remains were swapped in the past years, by the Iraqi-Iranian joint committee, which was formed by the two countries to look for the remains of those who died in the war, with the guidance of the ICRC.

Noteworthy, The First Gulf War, also known as the Iran-Iraq War, lasted for eight years from September 1980 to August 1988. It was called Saddam's Qadisiyah by the Iraqi government, while Iran referred to it as the Sacred Defense (in Persian: Defa'e Moqaddas).

The war ended with a ceasefire and no clear victor, but it resulted in about a million casualties and cost $400 billion. It was one of the longest and most brutal military conflicts of the twentieth century