U.S. Says Mass Grave in Iraq May Hold Kuwaiti POWs

[thedrifter]

U.S. Says Mass Grave in Iraq May Hold Kuwaiti POWs

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kuwaiti and U.S. experts are investigating whether a mass grave found near the southern Iraq town of Samawa contains the remains of Kuwaiti prisoners of war missing since Iraq's 1990-1991 occupation of its neighbor, U.S. defense officials said on Friday.

A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the grave site was discovered this week in the vicinity of the town 170 miles south of Baghdad, about midway between the Iraqi capital and the border with Kuwait.

Members of a Kuwaiti POW task force and U.S.-led forces were working at the mass grave site, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

"Based on evidence found at the site, this could possibly be the remains of Kuwaiti citizens missing since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the country. To date, over 600 people still remain unaccounted for. All remains will be treated with the highest respect and dignity," according to the statement.

Officials did not reveal how many bodies were found in the mass grave nor did they specify the nature of the evidence that led them to suspect it might contain the remains of the Kuwaiti POWs.

Without making specific reference to the mass grave, Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy Franks mentioned the POW issue during a Pentagon briefing with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"Coalition forces continue to work tirelessly with the international community, and certainly with Kuwait, to locate military personnel and citizens who have been missing in Iraq since the 1991 war," Franks told reporters.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government had argued that all Kuwaiti prisoners had been released, but held talks with officials from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in Amman, Jordan, before the recent war to discuss the fate of the missing.

Kuwaitis seeking information about the missing POWs have hoped that clues would emerge with the fall of Saddam's government. But many government records were burned and ransacked in looting after the fall of Baghdad.

Iraq invaded and occupied its neighbor to the south in August 1990. A U.S.-led military coalition ended the seven-month occupation in the 1991 Gulf War.


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