BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraq handed over on Thursday the remains of 46 Kuwaiti citizens who disappeared after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the U.S.-led war to liberate it in 1991.
Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Iraq authorities, with the participation of the Red Cross organization in Baghdad, handed over the remains of the missing Kuwaitis, as Iraq is seeking to end the file of the missing Kuwaitis.
A team, tasked with finding the remains of the missing Kuwaitis during the war, discovered on March 6 a mass grave in Muthanna province in southern Iraq, and the results of genetic analysis revealed that these remains belong to the missing Kuwaitis, the statement said.
Media reports said the bodies belong to the Kuwaiti prisoners of war killed in the 1991 Gulf War.
"Iraq confirms that it will spare no effort to determine the fate of the other missing Kuwaitis," the statement said.
Iraq also expressed its gratitude to the efforts made by the Red Cross in Baghdad since 1991, according to the statement.
Kuwaiti Ambassador to Iraq Salem al-Zamanan expressed his appreciation for the efforts by the Iraqi government to resolve all outstanding issues between the two countries, stressing that Kuwait has recently witnessed remarkable progress and development in the missing Kuwaiti issue.
Kuwait frequently claims that some 600 of its citizens went missing after the Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from the Iraqi troops in 1991.
