ATHENS, Oct. 18 -- Iran transferred to Iraq the bodies of 61 Iraqi killed in the bloody war between the two sides in the 1980s, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said Wednesday. Iraq, in turn, handed over the remains of 15 Iranians killed in the conflict, according to an IRNA dispatch monitored in Athens.
The exchange took place at the Khosravi border checkpoint, some 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Baghdad, and came about a month after Foreign Ministry officials from the two sides met in Tehran for talks aimed at improving ties. IRNA quoted an Iranian military officer as saying President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has ordered the armed forces to step up the search for the bodies of troops killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Gen. Mirfeizel Baqerzadeh, of the Iranian armed forces search committee, said bodies of Iraqi troops found on the Iranian side of the border would be handed over to the other side. Likewise, Iraq has agreed to hand over the remains of Iranians found on their side of the border. The decision to exchange the remains of troops killed in the war appeared aimed at ending the acrimony that erupted between the two sides after Iran accused Baghdad of withholding thousands of Iranian prisoners of war. Iraq said it has handed over all Iranian POWs, and those remaining on the Iranian list were missing in action and were probably killed during the conflict. Baqerzadeh said the Iraqi side agreed during recent talks to allow Iranian military search teams to cross the border at some points and continue searches begun on the Iranian side. He said Iraq had only recently launched its search for bodies of troops killed in the war, and were seven years behind Iran, implying that Iran began its search immediately after the war ended.
