ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Over 50,000 soldiers from the brutal eight-year war between Iraq and Iran remain missing despite the best efforts of Baghdad and Tehran, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday. 

“More than three decades after the end of the conflict, over 52,000 soldiers from both sides remain missing,” ICRC Iraq spokesperson Hiba Adnan told the state al-Sabah newspaper. 

Iraq, under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, fought a bloody war with the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran from 1980 to 1988. About one million lives from each side were lost over the course of the conflict. 

“The exchange of remains between Iraq and Iran is taking place in accordance with the tripartite mechanism established in 2008 under a memorandum of understanding signed in Geneva,” Adnan said, adding that the ICRC continues to facilitate the exchange of war dead. 

According to Adnan, the last exchange of 70 Iraqi soldiers and 48 Iranians took place on October 5. 

Days later, Iraq’s defense ministry announced that it had reached the final stages in the process of exchanging remains of dead soldiers with Iran, with many victims identified through documents and DNA tests. 

“Since 2010, the ICRC has facilitated the exchange of more than 5,300 human remains between the two countries,” Adnan noted, despite research teams facing “difficult and complex conditions, as many burial sites and mass graves are located in remote areas or areas contaminated with war remnants.”