Shafaq News- Basra

Iraq and Iran exchanged the remains of 76 soldiers who went missing during the First Gulf War (1980–1988), a senior official revealed to Shafaq News on Sunday.

Nashat Al-Mansouri, in charge of the Iraqi Remains folder, explained that the process, supervised by the International Committee of the Red Cross, returned six sets of Iraqi remains while sending more than 70 Iranian remains across the border at the Shalamcheh crossing.

“These exchanges are part of continuous efforts to close the chapter on missing persons and give families closure after decades of uncertainty,” he noted, adding that search teams continue excavating sites believed to hold the remains of other soldiers.

The process follows a series of regular handovers conducted under the framework of the 2008 Geneva Agreement, though official statistics on the total number of remains exchanged so far have not been released.

The First Gulf War, fought between Iraq and Iran, claimed an estimated one million lives on both sides, according to unofficial figures, and caused economic losses exceeding one trillion dollars.