BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- An Iraqi government-run newspaper said Tuesday that mass graves of
              Iraqi soldiers killed during the 1991 Gulf war were discovered near the border with Kuwait and Saudi
              Arabia.
 

              The Al Joumhuriya newspaper identified the soldiers as members of a unit to preserve the environment.
 

              It said the soldiers were buried alive in their military uniforms. Their identification papers were found in
              bottles near their remains.
 

              Al Joumhuriya quoted Iraqi farmers in the region as accusing U.S. and British forces as well as their "agents
              who belong to the Kuwaiti and Saudi regimes" of having carried out such "a cowardly operation" during the
              withdrawal of the Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
 

              The farmers said the U.S. and British forces sent paratroopers and military vehicles to attack the soldiers,
              and then buried them alive in mass graves.
 

              The newspaper said the Committee for Preserving the Environment in the district of Basra, 340 miles (550
              km) south of Baghdad, started with the help of the farmers searching operations to locate other possible
              mass graves.
 

              Iraq has previously accused U.S. and British forces of burying alive a number of Iraqi soldiers. Baghdad
              announced shortly after the Gulf War that it had discovered mass graves in the southern region of the
              country.