17 missing Iranian Mina crush victims identified

Seventeen Iranian pilgrims listed as “missing” in a deadly crush during Hajj rituals in Mina, near the holy Saudi city of Mecca, have been identified, says the head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization.

Saeed Ohadi said on Tuesday that the victims are “among the 1,450 bodies buried in Mecca.”

Ohadi said that the victims, who were among 65 Iranian pilgrims unaccounted for following the Mina tragedy, were identified through their fingerprints and nails.

He said that the identities of 12 victims have been determined while the other five bodies have been proved to be Iranian nationals.

The crush occurred on September 24 after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan in Jamarat.

Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including 464 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives in the tragedy. However, foreign officials put the death toll at 1,674.

The bodies of 399 Iranian victims have been repatriated so far.