Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj speaks during a press conference about Indian hostages killed in Iraq in New Delhi, India, on March 20, 2018. Iraq said Tuesday that the bodies of 39 Indian nationals executed by the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants in 2014 will be returned to India after DNA testing. (Xinhua/Partha Sarkar)
BAGHDAD, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraq said Tuesday that the bodies of 39 Indian nationals executed by the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants in 2014 will be returned to India after DNA testing.
The bodies were found in a massive grave in the Wadi Akkab area of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province.
The DNA samples were matched with family members of the dead, the Iraqi Martyrs Foundation's spokesman Basim Jihad said.
"The remains will be transferred to India in cooperation and coordination with the relevant authorities of the Iraqi government," Jihad said.
Indian Ambassador to Iraq Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit visited the foundation's headquarters to thank its efforts, the foundation said.
The Indians were laborers in Iraq. In 2014, 40 Indians were abducted by IS and kept hostages for a couple of days before allegedly being shot dead.
One of the hostages, claimed to be present at the killing scene, managed to escape after being shot in the leg.
IS militants seized large swaths of territory in Iraq in June 2014. After three years of battles, the Iraqi forces retook all the occupied areas from the terrorist group, including the country's second largest city Mosul.
