Iran repatriated all Iraqi POWs

Iran has repatriated all Iraqi prisoners of war (POWs) held during the eight-year war that Iraq imposed on the country, says an Iranian military intelligence official.

Director of Commander-in Cheif’s Intelligence Bureau Brigadier General Hessam Hashemi announced that the Islamic Republic repatriated the last group of Iraqi war prisoners by 2003 and that there are no remaining Iraqi POWs in Iran.

According to the Iranian official, almost 70,000 Iraqi prisoners were held by Iran during the imposed war.

Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 in a war that dragged for eight consecutive years. Many prisoners were taken by both sides during the conflict.

The first POW exchange took place in 1990, two years after the war ended, and the last one was carried out in 2003.