The first group of Iranian fighters held captive in Iraqi prisons returned home on Mordad 26, 1369 (August 17, 1990), nearly two years after the war ended following the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 598.

On August 17, 1990, marking the beginning of a prisoner exchange between Iran and Iraq, 969 Iranian captives were exchanged for 1,340 Iraqi captives. By September 15 of the same year, 37,532 Iranian captives had been released and returned to Iran in several stages.

The Iranian captives who were released are honored nationally as heroes who endured years of captivity under harsh conditions in prisons run by the toppled Iraqi Baathist regime.

Mordad 26 has been designated as a national occasion on the Iranian calendar to honor the resilience and sacrifice of those heroes.