Brigadier General Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh, head of Iran's Search and Recovery Committee for Missing in Action, said the bodies had been discovered over the recent months in joint recovery operations in Iran's Shalamcheh, and Iraq's Az Zubair and Al Faw.

Baqerzadeh revealed that the remains were to be repatriated to Iran, but the repatriation was suspended due to the US-led war against Iraq which started on March 20.

He added that Iran and Iraq had to halt the search and recovery operations for the missing in action on the Iraqi territory only 15 days before the war started.

"We eagerly ask the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to carry out its obligations and immediately take delivery of the bodies from the US-British troops, and return them to Iran in Shalamcheh border point with Iraq," he said.

British troops announced on Saturday that they had found the remains of as many as 200 people contained in makeshift coffins and plastic bags in an abandoned barracks near the southern Iraqi city of Basra, along with faded photos of corpses showing signs of torture and execution.

Iran's clarification has smashed the speculation by Western media and officials that the discoveries of the bodies was evident of the "brutality" of the Iraqi regime in cracking down on dissidents.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2003)