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Iran to repatriate 2,000 Iraqi PoWs soon

BAGHDAD: Iran is soon to repatriate 2,000 Iraqi prisoners of the 1980-1988 war between the two countries, the Iraqi weekly Nabdh al-Shabab newspaper (Pulse of Youth) reported.

The newspaper, run by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, said that Iraqi prisoners who were registered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently would be handed to Iraqi authorities at al-Munthiriya border checkpoint within two weeks.

Iran last week repatriated 1,999 Iraqi prisoners under ICRC supervision but Baghdad says Iran still holds 9,000 of its soldiers registered by the ICRC and others not registered.

The ICRC said on Thursday that more than 4,600 Iraqi PoWs were unwilling to return home.

Tehran said on Sunday that Iraq was still holding around 3,000 Iranian prisoners.

The fate of the PoWs remains an irritant to relations between Iraq and Iran nearly 12 years after the end of the war which cost a million lives.-Reuters