Tasnim � Remains of 119 Iranian troops recently unearthed some 30 years after the end of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s were repatriated from Iraq via a southwestern border crossing on Thursday.





The remains of the Iranian martyrs in Iranian-flag-wrapped caskets were transferred to Iran through Shalamcheh border crossing and were given a warm welcome by the local residents.

A mass funeral will be held in Ahwaz, capital of the Khuzestan Province, on Thursday evening.

53 bodies belong to the forces serving in the gendarmerie (former Iranian police) who were martyred in an attack 29 years ago.

Of the other martyrs, 36 were serving in the Army and in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and 30 others were conscripted into Basij (voluntary) forces who were martyred in an operation codenamed Karbala-4.

Iraq, under former dictator Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, imposing an eight-year war on its eastern neighbor.