In a somber illustration of the ever warming ties between Baghdad and Tehran, Iraqi security forces carried the remains of 38 dead Iraqi soldiers across the border crossing between Iraq and Iran in al-Shalamjah, Iraq, on Tuesday.
While only five of the soldiers have been identified so far, and their remains handed over to their families, DNA samples will be taken from the other remains before the soldiers are buried in a temporary grave in the southern port city of Basra.
The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights recently reported that the remains of some 2,139 Iraqi and 1.453 Iranian soldiers have been returned since 1996, as relations have improved between the two majority Shi’a states.
