Iran, Iraq Agree To Return War Dead

In a fresh sign of reconciliation, Iran and Iraq have agreed to recover and return bodies of soldiers missing from their 1980-88 war, a senior Iranian official said Saturday.

Brig. Gen. Abdollah Najafi, head of Iran’s Prisoners of War Commission, announced the agreement in Tehran, according to Iran’s state-run television.

The Iran-Iraq war ended in August 1988 with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, but the two countries have still not signed a peace treaty.

Iran and Iraq have exchanged some 75,000 POWs, but the international Red Cross says there are still some 20,000 Iraqi soldiers in Iran and at least 1,000 Iranians in Iraq.

Iran says many of the Iraqis, mainly Shiite Muslims like the majority of Iran’s population, do not want to return home.

Najafi claimed in January that Iraq holds more than 15,000 Iranian POWs, while another 16,000 men are listed as missing in action.