World War I sites added to UNESCO World Heritage list

More than 130 cemeteries and memorials to soldiers who fell in World War I were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list Wednesday, the UN cultural body said.

Included are a total of 139 sites across Belgium's Flanders and Wallonia regions and France's north and northeast, where many of the bloodiest battles were fought.

The 1914-18 conflict claimed 10 million lives from 130 countries and left 20 million more maimed, according to French culture ministry figures.

Wednesday's decision covers sites "from large necropolises, holding the remains of tens of thousands of soldiers of several nationalities, to tiny and simpler cemeteries, and single memorials," UNESCO said.

It is the latest this week creating new World Heritage sites that embody the memory of grim moments from recent history.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee had avoided such thorny questions in recent years, as memorials to war and mass killing can easily be used for political purposes.