Bodies are Iranian soldiers, says Tehran

Bodies found by British forces near Basra in southern Iraq were those of Iranian soldiers killed during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, state-run Tehran radio reported today.

“We officially call on the International Committee of the Red Cross to carry out their responsibility and immediately take the bodies from the invading forces and hand them over to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the radio quoted General Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh, the head of Iran’s Committee for Searching for the Missing in Action, as saying.