TEHRAN -- Two of the 175 Iranian divers, most of whom are believed to have been buried alive in scattered mass graves in Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, were buried in the courtyard of Tehran’s Art Bureau on Tuesday.

In a short message sent to Art Bureau Director Mohsen Momeni Sharif, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei praised the move.

“There is a hope that the great art of these men of God and the mujahedin of the right path would be the source of inspiration for that revolutionary art center,” the Leader wrote.

Cineastes, including directors Majid Majidi and Ahmadreza Darvish, and a large number artists, writers and poets attended the burial ceremony.

In addition, a book containing a collection of poetry composed by poets in commemoration of the divers was unveiled during a ceremony at Tehran’s Mehr Cultural Center on Monday evening.

“175 Oceans” has been published by the Sacred Defense Art and Literature Organization.

The skeletons of the divers were unearthed in early June by an excavation team led by Brigadier General Mir Feisal Baqerzadeh. Most of the skeletons were discovered handcuffed with wire with no sign of execution on their bodies.

The divers were members of a shock troop squad, which crossed the Arvand River to overrun Umm al Rassas, a nearby island on the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, during the Operation Karbala-4 on December 25, 1986. However, they were captured by Iraqi forces.

Photo: People attend the funeral of one of the 175 Iranian divers, most of whom are believed to have been buried alive in scattered mass graves in Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, in Tehran on August 11, 2015. (Mehr/Hossein Razzaqnejad)

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