The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran has marked the anniversary of Iranian war prisoners’ release from Iraq, saying the country’s independence and honor is a result of the nation’s struggle for freedom.

According to The Iran Project, 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.