Iran holds funerals for troops killed in 1980s Iraq war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Thousands of Iranians across the country have attended funerals for 400 troops killed in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. A state-organized funeral procession took place on Tuesday in the capital of Tehran for 200 soldiers whose remains were recently recovered from the former battlefields. Dozens of other Iranian cities and towns saw similar funerals for another 200 soldiers. The troops have not been identified and were to be buried as “unknown martyrs.” Iran has been shaken by mass protests since mid-September over the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died after being detained by the country’s morality police. The protests rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy, established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.