GENEVA, April 3 (Reuters) - The remains of 62 Iraqi soldiers killed in the 1991 Gulf War were repatriated on Thursday from Saudi Arabia, ending years of "painful uncertainty" about their fate, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. The body of a seven-month-old Iraqi baby girl who died in a refugee camp at the time was also returned under a bilateral deal that had been negotiated over a long period, the Swiss-based humanitarian agency said in a statement. The 63 bodies, exhumed near the Iraqi border in northern Saudi Arabia, were transported through Kuwait and transferred to Iraqi authorities at a border crossing near Basra. Jamila Hammami of the ICRC said the current fighting in Iraq, which has caused millions of people to flee their homes, would complicate efforts to reach the families of the deceased. "The (Iraqi) authorities must do their utmost to find and to inform the families as soon as possible. They have been living in painful uncertainty for more than 17 years," Hammami said. Some 139 Iraqi soldiers were buried in Saudi Arabia after dying in the 1991 conflict which ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, according to ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas. The 62 soldiers were exhumed after their identities were established. Another 77 buried at the unnamed site still await exhumation and identification by forensic experts. Since 1991, the ICRC has chaired a "Tripartite Commission" linking Iraq, Kuwait and the coalition forces of Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the United States in an effort to resolve the fate of those missing since the Gulf War. The agency is trying to determine what happened to nearly 1,500 people -- mainly Kuwaitis, Iraqis and Saudis -- still missing since the Gulf War, which started after former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded the oil-rich emirate. Since 2003, when U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to oust Saddam, the Tripartite Commission has clarified the fate of 293 people, according to the ICRC. The remains repatriated on Thursday were negotiated under separate, bilateral talks and are not included in that tally. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Editing by Matthew Jones)
A U.S. soldier guards a helicopter in Mussayab, a predominately Shi'ite neighbourhood 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad April 2, 2008. The United States could quickly lose its security gains ...
Refugees & displacement
