The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran stressed the country’s independence and honor, marking the anniversary of Iranian war prisoners freedom from Iraq.

On August 17, 1990, the then-Iraqi Ba’athist regime released over 40,000 Iranian war prisoners in return for Iran releasing around the same number of Iraqi war prisoners.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a statement on Thursday paid tribute to all the martyrs of the Sacred Defense (Iraq’s war of aggression on Iran) and revered all the released war prisoners.

The statement said that after returning to Iran, the war prisoners played a role in the country’s progress, especially in the fields of management, knowledge base and the field of dealing with the enemies’ soft war.