Experts have started to try to identify Argentinian soldiers buried on the Falkland Islands who were killed fighting Britain over the territory, the Red Cross said on Thursday.

The unidentified bodies of 123 Argentinian soldiers have been buried since the 1982 war in a cemetery on the remote South Atlantic islands, known in Spanish as Malvinas – governed by Britain but claimed by Argentina.

Forensic scientists supervised by the Red Cross have started exhuming the bodies in Darwin cemetery and will take bone samples for genetic testing.

“A temporary mortuary is being set up at the cemetery, where the remains will be analysed and samples collected for DNA testing in genetic laboratories in Argentina, Spain and the United Kingdom,” the Red Cross said in a statement. “Any exhumed remains will be placed in new coffins and immediately reburied in the same location.”

The bone extracts will be compared to DNA samples from relatives of soldiers known to have died in the fighting.

The two countries fought a brief but bloody war over the islands, known as Las Malvinas in Spanish, in 1982 after Argentine forces under the country’s then military dictatorship occupied them. The 10-week conflict killed 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British soldiers and three islanders.

Argentina argues it inherited the windswept islands from Spain when it gained independence in the 19th century.

Britain has ruled them since 1833, when it occupied them asserting an earlier sovereignty claim.

After years of testy relations under former leftist governments, Argentina has pursued a cautious rapprochement with Britain under the current president, Mauricio Macri.