IRAQ SAYS ALL REGISTERED IRANIAN POWS RELEASED

Iraq said yesterday it had sent back all registered Iranian prisoners of war and asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to list those not previously counted. The Iraqi News Agency did not say how many POWs were still in Iraq. But by late Saturday Baghdad and Tehran had each freed 16,000 prisoners.

According to the Red Cross, there were about 20,000 POWs registered in Iraq and 50,000 registered in Iran when the Gulf war cease-fire came into force in August, 1988.

The United Nations estimates another 10,000 POWs may be held by Iraq and another 20,000 by Iran.