Middle East News
Iraq starts looking for soldiers missing in action in Kuwait, Iran
Jul 2, 2009, 7:37 GMT
Baghdad - Iraq has asked for help from both the Iranian and Kuwaiti governments on locating Iraqis who were captured or went missing during Iran/Iraq war and the first Gulf war, officials said Thursday.
Aaround 469 Iraqis were captured and more than 52,000 went missing during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), known as the First Gulf War in Iraq.
'The file of prisoners and missing is one of the important issues adopted by the ministry,' Hussein al-Zuheiry, deputy in the Human Rights Ministry was quoted by al-Sabah newspaper as saying.
Al-Zuheiry said that only 115 prisoners of the 469 are in contact with their families in Iraq, while the whereabouts of the other 354 are unknown, despite that they were registered as prisoners at the Red Cross.
'We are coordinating with Iran to hand over the 115 prisoners,' al-Zuheiry added.
The official also said that an Iraqi-Kuwaiti committee has been formed, headed by the Red Cross, to exchange information about the fate of more than 6,000 Iraqis missing in action during the 1990-91 conflict.
He said that only 74 Iraqis, captured during the war with Kuwait, have been handed over to Iraq.
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