World : Iraq Returns 131 Iranian POWs
A plane chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross left Baghdad this morning for Tehran with 131 Iranian prisoners of war released by Iraq, the agency said.
They were the first of 255 disabled Iranian POWs Iraq pledged to release in a unilateral gesture of good will, a Red Cross spokeswoman said. She hoped the remainder would be flown home on Tuesday. The 131 are the first prisoners captured in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war to go home since a dispute over numbers halted a planned exchange of 1,600 sick or wounded POWs last November.
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