While They Were Dying: The Road to Iraq

Highway of Death, the result of American forces bombing retreating Iraqi forces, Kuwait, 1991

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Iran was further distracted by internal fighting between the regime and the Islamic Marxist Mujaheddin e-Khalq MEK on the streets of Iran's major cities in June and again in September. The People's Mujahedin of Iran started to take the side of Saddam in or mid s. Less emphasis was placed on the Army with its conventional tactics, and more emphasis was placed on the Revolutionary Guard with its unconventional tactics. However, on 3 April , the Iranian air force used eight F-4 Phantom fighter bombers, four F Tomcats, three Boeing refuelling tankers, and one Boeing command plane to launch a surprise attack on H3 , destroying 27—50 Iraqi fighter jets and bombers.

Despite the successful H-3 airbase attack in addition to other air attacks , in April, the Iranian Air Force was forced to cancel its successful day air offensive. In addition, they gave up trying to hold total control of Iranian airspace. Due to the heavy toll of sanctions and pre-war purges, the Iranian Air Force could not suffer further attrition, and made the decision in order to limit their losses. They were also damaged by a fresh purge, after the impeachment crisis of President Banisadr. While throughout — the Iraqi air force would remain weak, within the next few years they would rearm and expand again, and begin to regain the strategic initiative.

Since the Iranians suffered from a shortage of heavy weapons [59]: Typically, an Iranian assault would commence with poorly trained Basij who would launch the primary human wave assaults to swamp the weakest portions of the Iraqi lines en masse on some occasions even bodily clearing minefields.

According to historian Stephen C. Pelletiere, the idea of Iranian "human wave attacks" was a misconception. As the squads surged forward to execute their missions, that gave the impression of a "human wave attack". Nevertheless, the idea of "human wave attacks" remained virtually synonymous with any large-scale infantry frontal assault Iran carried out. According to the former Iraqi general Ra'ad al-Hamdani , the Iranian human wave charges consisted of armed "civilians" who carried most of their necessary equipment themselves into battle and often lacked command and control and logistics.

Once a weak point was found, the Iranians would concentrate all of their forces into that area in an attempt to break through with human wave attacks. The human wave attacks, while extremely bloody tens of thousands of troops died in the process , [84] when used in combination with infiltration and surprise, caused major Iraqi defeats.

As the Iraqis would dig in their tanks and infantry into static, entrenched positions, the Iranians would manage to break through the lines and encircle entire divisions. After the Iraqi offensive stalled in March , there was little change in the front other than Iran retaking the high ground above Susangerd in May. Using a large number of tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets, they attacked the Iranian buildup around the Roghabiyeh pass. Though Saddam and his generals assumed they had succeeded, in reality the Iranian forces remained fully intact.

The concentration of forces did not resemble a traditional military buildup, and although the Iraqis detected a population buildup near the front, they failed to realise that this was an attacking force. On 22 March , Iran launched an attack which took the Iraqi forces by surprise: Though they took heavy losses, they eventually broke through Iraqi lines.

The Revolutionary Guard and regular army followed up by surrounding the Iraqi 9th and 10th Armoured and 1st Mechanised divisions that had camped close to the Iranian town of Shush. The Iraqis launched a counter-attack using their 12th Armoured division to break the encirclement and rescue the surrounded divisions. Iraqi tanks came under attack by 95 Iranian F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger fighter jets, destroying much of the division.

The Iranian armed forces destroyed — Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles in a costly success. In just the first day of the battle, the Iranians lost tanks. In preparation for Operation Beit ol-Moqaddas , the Iranians had launched numerous air raids against Iraq air bases, destroying 47 jets including Iraq's brand new Mirage F-1 fighter jets from France ; this gave the Iranians air superiority over the battlefield while allowing them to monitor Iraqi troop movements.

On 29 April, Iran launched the offensive. The Basij launched human wave attacks, which were followed up by the regular army and Revolutionary Guard support along with tanks and helicopters. By 12 May, Iran had driven out all Iraqi forces from the Susangerd area. The Iraqis retreated to the Karun River, with only Khorramshahr and a few outlying areas remaining in their possession.

The Iraqis created a hastily constructed defence line around the city and outlying areas. Saddam Hussein even visited Khorramshahr in a dramatic gesture, swearing that the city would never be relinquished. In the early morning hours of 23 May , the Iranians began the drive towards Khorramshahr across the Karun River. The Iranians hit the Iraqis with destructive air strikes and massive artillery barrages, crossed the Karun River, captured bridgeheads , and launched human wave attacks towards the city. Saddam's defensive barricade collapsed; [47] in less than 48 hours of fighting, the city fell and 19, Iraqis surrendered to the Iranians.

A total of 10, Iraqis were killed or wounded in Khorramshahr, while the Iranians suffered 30, casualties. The fighting had battered the Iraqi military: The Iraqi Air Force was also left in poor shape: A defector who flew his MiG to Syria in June revealed that the Iraqi Air Force had only three squadrons of fighter-bombers left that were capable of mounting offensive operations into Iran. The Iraqi Army Air Corps was in slightly better shape, and could still operate more than 70 helicopters.

At this point, Saddam believed that his army was too demoralised and damaged to hold onto Khuzestan and major swathes of territory in Iran, and withdrew his remaining armed forces from those areas. He redeployed them along the border with Iran as a means of defence. The virulent Iranian campaign, which at its peak seemed to be making the overthrow of the Saudi regime a war aim on a par with the defeat of Iraq, did have an effect on the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia], but not the one the Iranians wanted: Iraq began receiving support from the United States and west European countries as well.

Saddam was given diplomatic, monetary, and military support by the United States, including massive loans, political influence, and intelligence on Iranian deployments gathered by American spy satellites. With Iranian success on the battlefield, the United States increased its support of the Iraqi government, supplying intelligence, economic aid, and dual-use equipment and vehicles, as well as normalizing its intergovernmental relations which had been broken during the Six-Day War.

In , Reagan removed Iraq from the list of countries "supporting terrorism" and sold weapons such as howitzers to Iraq via Jordan. Both the United States and West Germany sold Iraq dual-use pesticides and poisons that would be used to create chemical [94] and other weapons, such as Roland missiles. At the same time, the Soviet Union, angered with Iran for purging and destroying the communist Tudeh Party , sent large shipments of weapons to Iraq.

Iraq also replenished their stocks of small arms and anti-tank weapons such as AKs and rocket-propelled grenades from its supporters. The depleted tank forces were replenished with more Soviet and Chinese tanks, and the Iraqis were reinvigorated in the face of the coming Iranian onslaught. Iran was portrayed as the aggressor, and would be seen as such until the — Persian Gulf War, when Iraq would be condemned. Iran did not have the money to purchase arms to the same extent as Iraq did. They counted on China, North Korea , Libya , Syria , and Japan for supplying anything from weapons and munitions to logistical and engineering equipment.

On June 20, , Saddam announced that he wanted to sue for peace and proposed an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal from Iranian territory within two weeks. The decision to invade Iraq was taken after much debate within the Iranian government.

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Iran also hoped that their attacks would ignite a revolt against Saddam's rule by the Shia and Kurdish population of Iraq, possibly resulting in his downfall. They were successful in doing so with the Kurdish population, but not the Shia. At a cabinet meeting in Baghdad, Minister of Health Riyadh Ibrahim Hussein suggested that Saddam could step down temporarily as a way of easing Iran towards a ceasefire, and then afterwards would come back to power.

When no one raised their hand in support, he escorted Riyadh Hussein to the next room, closed the door, and shot him with his pistol. For the most part, Iraq remained on the defensive for the next six years, unable and unwilling to launch any major offensives, while Iran launched more than 70 offensives.

Iraq's strategy changed from holding territory in Iran to denying Iran any major gains in Iraq as well as holding onto disputed territories and Iran's border areas. By the end of , Iraq had been resupplied with new Soviet and Chinese materiel, and the ground war entered a new phase. Iraq used newly acquired T, T and T tanks as well as Chinese copies , BM truck-mounted rocket launchers, and Mi helicopter gunships to prepare a Soviet-type three-line defence, replete with obstacles such as barbed wire, minefields, fortified positions and bunkers.

The Combat Engineer Corps built bridges across water obstacles, laid minefields, erected earthen revetments, dug trenches, built machinegun nests, and prepared new defence lines and fortifications. Iraq began to focus on using defense in depth to defeat the Iranians. Iraqi air and artillery attacks would then pin the Iranians down, while tanks and mechanised infantry attacks using mobile warfare would push them back.

While Iranian human wave attacks were successful against the dug in Iraqi forces in Khuzestan, they had trouble breaking through Iraq's defense in depth lines. In addition, Iran's military power was weakened once again by large purges in , resulting from another supposedly attempted coup. The Iranian generals wanted to launch an all-out attack on Baghdad and seize it before the weapon shortages continued to manifest further.

Instead, that was rejected as being unfeasable, [55] and the decision was made to capture one area of Iraq after the other in the hopes that a series of blows delivered foremost by the Revolutionary Guards Corps would force a political solution to the war including Iraq withdrawing completely from the disputed territories along the border. The Iranians planned their attack in southern Iraq, near Basra. Over , Revolutionary Guards and Basij volunteer forces charged towards the Iraqi lines.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards also used the T tanks they had captured in earlier battles. However, the attacks came to a halt and the Iranians turned to defensive measures.

Seeing this, Iraq used their Mi helicopters, along with Gazelle helicopters armed with Euromissile HOT , against columns of Iranian mechanised infantry and tanks. These "hunter-killer" teams of helicopters, which had been formed with the help of East German advisors, proved to be very costly for Iranians. On 16 July, Iran tried again further north and managed to push the Iraqis back. Some were captured, while many were killed. They were successful in defeating the Iranian breakthroughs, but suffered heavy losses. The 9th Armoured Division in particular had to be disbanded, and was never reformed.

The total casualty toll had grown to include 80, soldiers and civilians. After Iran's failure in Operation Ramadan, they carried out only a few smaller attacks. Iran launched two limited offensives aimed at reclaiming the Sumar Hills and isolating the Iraqi pocket at Naft Shahr at the international border, both of which were part of the disputed territories still under Iraqi occupation.

They then aimed to capture the Iraqi border town of Mandali. They nearly breached the Iraqi lines but failed to capture Mandali after the Iraqis sent reinforcements, including brand new T tanks, which possessed armour that could not be pierced from the front by Iranian TOW missiles. After the failure of the summer offensives, Iran believed that a major effort along the entire breadth of the front would yield victory.

During the course of , the Iranians launched five major assaults along the front, though none achieved substantial success, as the Iranians staged more massive "human wave" attacks. Iraqi air campaigns met little opposition, striking over half of Iran, and the Iraqis were able to gain air superiority towards the end of the war. Iran directed artillery on Basra and Al Amarah , and Mandali. The Iranians suffered a large number of casualties clearing minefields and breaching Iraqi anti-tank mines , which Iraqi engineers were unable to replace.

After this battle, Iran reduced its use of human wave attacks, though they still remained a key tactic as the war went on. The Mandali —Baghdad northcentral sector also witnessed fighting in April , as Iranian attacks were stopped by Iraqi mechanised and infantry divisions. Casualties were high, and by the end of , an estimated , Iranians and 60, Iraqis had been killed. Iran, however, held the advantage in the war of attrition. From early —, Iran launched a series of four Valfajr Dawn Operations that eventually numbered to During Operation Dawn-1 , in early February , 50, Iranian forces attacked westward from Dezful and were confronted by 55, Iraqi forces.

The Iranian objective was to cut off the road from Basra to Baghdad in the central sector. The Iraqis carried out air sorties against the Iranians, and even bombed Dezful, Ahvaz, and Khorramshahr in retribution. The Iraqi counterattack was broken up by Iran's 92nd Armoured Division. During Operation Dawn-2 , the Iranian's directed insurgency operations by proxy in April by supporting the Kurds in the north.

With Kurdish support, the Iranians attacked on 23 July , capturing the Iraqi town of Haj Omran and maintaining it against an Iraqi poison gas counteroffensive. Iran saw an opportunity to sweep away Iraqi forces controlling the roads between the Iranian mountain border towns of Mehran, Dehloran and Elam. Iraq launched airstrikes, and equipped attack helicopters with chemical warheads ; while ineffective, it demonstrated both the Iraqi general staff's and Saddam's increasing interest in using chemical weapons.

In the end, 17, had been killed on both sides, [ clarification needed ] with no gain for either country. Iran's use of artillery against Basra while the battles in the north raged created multiple fronts, which effectively confused and wore down Iraq. Previously, the Iranians had outnumbered the Iraqis on the battlefield, but Iraq expanded their military draft pursuing a policy of total war , and by , the armies were equal in size.

By , Iraq had twice as many soldiers as Iran. By , Iraq would have 1 million soldiers, giving it the fourth largest army in the world. Some of their equipment, such as tanks, outnumbered the Iranians' by at least five to one. Iranian commanders, however, remained more tactically skilled. After the Dawn Operations, Iran attempted to change tactics. In the face of increasing Iraqi defense in depth, as well as increased armaments and manpower, Iran could no longer rely on simple human wave attacks.

Iran launched frequent, and sometimes smaller offensives to slowly gain ground and deplete the Iraqis through attrition. The Army and Revolutionary Guards worked together better as their tactics improved. Iran began training troops in infiltration, patrolling, night-fighting, marsh warfare, and mountain warfare. Iran used speedboats to cross the marshes and rivers in southern Iraq and landed troops on the opposing banks, where they would dig and set up pontoon bridges across the rivers and wetlands to allow heavy troops and supplies to cross. Iran also learned to integrate foreign guerrilla units as part of their military operations.

By , the Iranian ground forces were reorganised well enough for the Revolutionary Guard to start Operation Kheibar , [] [] which lasted from 24 February to 19 March. The marshes negated Iraqi advantage in armor, and absorbed artillery rounds and bombs. Iran launched two preliminary attacks prior to the main offensive, Operation Dawn 5 and Dawn 6. Operation Kheibar began on 24 February with Iranian infantrymen crossing the Hawizeh Marshes using motorboats and transport helicopters in an amphibious assault.

On that day, a massive array of Iranian helicopters transporting Pasdaran troops were intercepted by Iraqi combat aircraft MiGs , Mirages and Sukhois. In what was essentially an aerial slaughter, Iraqi jets shot down 49 of 50 Iranian helicopters. Iraq ran live electrical cables through the water, electrocuting numerous Iranian troops and then displaying their corpses on state television.

By 29 February, the Iranians had reached the outskirts of Qurna and were closing in on the Baghdad—Basra highway. The Iranians retreated back to the marshes, though they still held onto them along with Majnoon Island. The Battle of the Marshes saw an Iraqi defence that had been under continuous strain since 15 February; they were relieved by their use of chemical weapons and defence-in-depth , where they layered defensive lines: Four years into the war, the human cost to Iran had been , combat fatalities and , wounded.

Iraqi combat fatalities were estimated at 80, with , wounded. Unable to launch successful ground attacks against Iran, Iraq used their now expanded air force to carry out strategic bombing against Iranian shipping, economic targets, and cities in order to damage Iran's economy and morale. The so-called "Tanker War" started when Iraq attacked the oil terminal and oil tankers at Kharg Island in early Iraq declared that all ships going to or from Iranian ports in the northern zone of the Persian Gulf were subject to attack.

Iraq repeatedly bombed Iran's main oil export facility on Kharg Island, causing increasingly heavy damage. As a first response to these attacks, Iran attacked a Kuwaiti tanker carrying Iraqi oil near Bahrain on 13 May , as well as a Saudi tanker in Saudi waters on 16 May.

Because Iraq had become landlocked during the invasion, they had to rely on their Arab allies, primarily Kuwait, to transport their oil. Iran attacked tankers carrying Iraqi oil from Kuwait, later attacking tankers from any Persian Gulf state supporting Iraq. Attacks on ships of noncombatant nations in the Persian Gulf sharply increased thereafter, with both nations attacking oil tankers and merchant ships of neutral nations in an effort to deprive their opponent of trade. The air and small-boat attacks, however, did little damage to Persian Gulf state economies, and Iran moved its shipping port to Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian Navy imposed a naval blockade of Iraq, using its British-built frigates to stop and inspect any ships thought to be trading with Iraq. They operated with virtual impunity, as Iraqi pilots had little training in hitting naval targets. Some Iranian warships attacked tankers with ship-to-ship missiles, while others used their radars to guide land-based anti-ship missiles to their targets. These speedboats would launch surprise attacks against tankers and cause substantial damage. Iran also used F-4 Phantoms II and helicopters to launch Maverick missiles and unguided rockets at tankers.

Lloyd's of London , a British insurance market, estimated that the Tanker War damaged commercial vessels and killed about civilian sailors. The largest portion of the attacks was directed by Iraq against vessels in Iranian waters, with the Iraqis launching three times as many attacks as the Iranians. The Soviet Union agreed to charter tankers starting in , and the United States Navy offered to provide protection for foreign tankers reflagged and flying the U. Iran accused the United States of helping Iraq.

During the course of the war, Iran attacked two Soviet Navy ships which were protecting Kuwaiti tankers. Seawise Giant , the largest ship ever built, was struck and damaged by Iraqi Exocet missiles as it was carrying Iranian crude oil out of the Gulf. Meanwhile, Iraq's air force also began carrying out strategic bombing raids against Iranian cities. While Iraq had launched numerous attacks with aircraft and missiles against border cities from the beginning of the war and sporadic raids on Iran's main cities, this was the first systematic strategic bombing that Iraq carried out during the war.

This would become known as the "War of the Cities". Iraq used Tu Blinder and Tu Badger strategic bombers to carry out long-range high-speed raids on Iranian cities, including Tehran. Fighter-bombers such as the Mig Foxbat and Su Fitter were used against smaller or shorter range targets, as well as escorting the strategic bombers. In response, the Iranians deployed their F-4 Phantoms to combat the Iraqis, and eventually they deployed Fs as well. Most of the Iraqi air raids were intercepted by the Iranian fighter jets and air defense, [ citation needed ] but some also successfully hit their targets, becoming a major headache for Iran.

By , Iran also expanded their air defense network heavily to take the load of the fighting off the air force. By later in the war, Iraqi raids primarily consisted of indiscriminate missile attacks [ citation needed ] while air attacks were used only on fewer, more important targets.

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Iran also launched several retaliatory air raids on Iraq, while primarily shelling border cities such as Basra. Iran also bought some Scud missiles from Libya , and launched them against Baghdad. These too inflicted damage upon Iraq. On 7 February , during the first war of the cities Saddam ordered his air force to attack eleven Iranian cities; [49] bombardments ceased on 22 February Though Saddam had aimed for the attacks to demoralise Iran and force them to negotiate, they had little effect, and Iran quickly repaired the damage.

Nevertheless, the attacks resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties on both sides, and became known as the first "war of the cities". It was estimated that 1, Iranian civilians were killed during the raids in February alone. While interior cities such as Tehran, Tabriz, Qom, Isfahan and Shiraz did receive numerous raids, it was the cities of western Iran that suffered the most death and destruction.

By , Iran's losses were estimated to be , soldiers, while Iraq's losses were estimated to be , Both sides also abandoned equipment in the battlefield because their technicians were unable to carry out repairs. Iran and Iraq showed little internal coordination on the battlefield, and in many cases units were left to fight on their own.

As a result, by the end of , the war was a stalemate. By , Iraqi armed forces were receiving financial support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Persian Gulf states, and were making substantial arms purchases from the Soviet Union, China, and France. For the first time since early , Saddam launched new offensives.

On 6 January , the Iraqis launched an offensive attempting to retake Majnoon Island. However, they were quickly bogged down into a stalemate against , Iranian infantrymen, reinforced by amphibious divisions. Iraq also carried out another "war of the cities" between 12—14 March, hitting up to targets in over 30 towns and cities, including Tehran. Iran responded by launching 14 Scud missiles for the first time, purchased from Libya.

More Iraqi air attacks were carried out in August, resulting in hundreds of additional civilian casualties. Iraqi attacks against both Iranian and neutral oil tankers in Iranian waters continued, with Iraq carrying out airstrikes using French bought Super Etendard and Mirage F-1 jets as well as Super Frelon helicopters, using Exocet missiles. The Iraqis attacked again on 28 January ; they were defeated, and the Iranians retaliated on 11 March with a major offensive directed against the Baghdad-Basra highway one of the few major offensives conducted in , codenamed Operation Badr after the Battle of Badr , Muhammad's first military victory in Mecca.

It is our belief that Saddam wishes to return Islam to blasphemy and polytheism The issue is one of Islam versus blasphemy, and not of Iran versus Iraq. This operation was similar to Operation Kheibar, though it invoked more planning. Iran used , troops, with 60, more in reserve. They assessed the marshy terrain, plotted points where they could land tanks, and constructed pontoon bridges across the marshes.

The Basij forces were also equipped with anti-tank weapons. The ferocity of the Iranian offensive broke through the Iraqi lines. The Revolutionary Guard, with the support of tanks and artillery, broke through north of Qurna on 14 March. That same night 3, Iranian troops reached and crossed the Tigris River using pontoon bridges and captured part of the Baghdad—Basra Highway 8 , which they had failed to achieve in Operations Dawn 5 and 6.

Saddam responded by launching chemical attacks against the Iranian positions along the highway and by initiating the aforementioned second "war of the cities", with an air and missile campaign against twenty to thirty Iranian population centres, including Tehran. They then launched a pincer attack using mechanized infantry and heavy artillery. The Iranians retreated back to the Hoveyzeh marshes while being attacked by helicopters, [47] and the highway was recaptured by the Iraqis.

Operation Badr resulted in 10,—12, Iraqi casualties and 15, Iranian ones. The failure of the human wave attacks in earlier years had prompted Iran to develop a better working relationship between the Army and the Revolutionary Guard [49] and to mould the Revolutionary Guard units into a more conventional fighting force.

To combat Iraq's use of chemical weapons, Iran began producing an antidote. They were primarily used in observation, being used for up to sorties. For the rest of , and until the spring of , the Iranian Air Force's efficiency in air defence increased, with weapons being repaired or replaced and new tactical methods being used. The Iraqi Air Force reacted by increasing the sophistication of its equipment, incorporating modern electronic countermeasure pods, decoys such as chaff and flare , and anti-radiation missiles.

Instead, they would launch Scud missiles, which the Iranians could not stop. Since the range of the Scud missile was too short to reach Tehran, they converted them to al-Hussein missiles with the help of East German engineers, cutting up their Scuds into three chunks and attaching them together. Iran responded to these attacks by using their own Scud missiles. Aside from extensive foreign help to Iraq, Iranian attacks were severely hampered by their shortages of weaponry, including heavy weaponry.

Large portions of them had been lost during the last several years. Iran still managed to maintain 1, tanks often by capturing Iraqi ones and additional artillery, but many needed repairs to be operational. But by this time Iran managed to procure spare parts from various sources, helping them to restore some weapons.

Iran later reverse-engineered and produced those weapons on their own as well. On the night of 10—11 February , the Iranians launched Operation Dawn 8, [] in which 30, troops comprising five Army divisions and men from the Revolutionary Guard and Basij advanced in a two-pronged offensive to capture the al-Faw peninsula in southern Iraq, the only area touching the Persian Gulf. The resistance, consisting of several thousand poorly trained soldiers of the Iraqi Popular Army , fled or were defeated, and the Iranian forces set up pontoon bridges crossing the Shatt al-Arab, [note 1] allowing 30, soldiers to cross in a short period of time.

The sudden capture of al-Faw took the Iraqis by shock, since they had thought it impossible for the Iranians to cross the Shatt al-Arab. On 12 February , the Iraqis began a counter-offensive to retake al-Faw, which failed after a week of heavy fighting. However, their attempts again ended in failure, costing them many tanks and aircraft: In March , the Iranians tried to follow up their success by attempting to take Umm Qasr , which would have completely severed Iraq from the Gulf and placed Iranian troops on the border with Kuwait.

The battle bogged down into a World War I-style stalemate in the marshes of the peninsula. Immediately after the Iranian capture of al-Faw, Saddam declared a new offensive against Iran, designed to drive deep into the state. On 15—19 May, Iraqi Army's Second Corps, supported by helicopter gunships, attacked and captured the city. Saddam then offered the Iranians to exchange Mehran for al-Faw. Iraq then continued the attack, attempting to push deeper into Iran.

The Iranians built up their forces on the heights surrounding Mehran. On 30 June, using mountain warfare tactics they launched their attack, recapturing the city by 3 July. Iraqi losses were heavy enough to allow the Iranians to also capture territory inside Iraq, [47] and depleted the Iraqi military enough to prevent them from launching a major offensive for the next two years. Through the eyes of international observers, Iran was prevailing in the war by the end of Iraq responded by launching another "war of the cities". In one attack, Tehran's main oil refinery was hit, and in another instance, Iraq damaged Iran's Assadabad satellite dish, disrupting Iranian overseas telephone and telex service for almost two weeks.

Iraq continued to attack oil tankers via air. Iraq continued to attack Kharg Island and the oil tankers and facilities as well. Iran created a tanker shuttle service of 20 tankers to move oil from Kharg to Larak Island, escorted by Iranian fighter jets. Once moved to Larak, the oil would be moved to oceangoing tankers usually neutral. By now they almost always used the armed speedboats of the IRGC navy, and attacked many tankers. Iraq got permission from the Saudi government to use its airspace to attack Larak Island, although due to the distance attacks were less frequent there.

The escalating tanker war in the Gulf became an ever-increasing concern to foreign powers, especially the United States. In April , Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa declaring that the war must be won by March The Iranians increased recruitment efforts, obtaining , volunteers. Faced with their recent defeats in al-Faw and Mehran, Iraq appeared to be losing the war. Iraq's generals, angered by Saddam's interference, threatened a full-scale mutiny against the Ba'ath Party unless they were allowed to conduct operations freely.

In one of the few times during his career, Saddam gave in to the demands of his generals. However, the defeat at al-Faw led Saddam to declare the war to be Al-Defa al-Mutaharakha The Dynamic Defense , [47] and announcing that all civilians had to take part in the war effort. The universities were closed and all of the male students were drafted into the military. Civilians were instructed to clear marshlands to prevent Iranian amphibious infiltrations and to help build fixed defenses.

The government tried to integrate the Shias into the war effort by recruiting many as part of the Ba'ath Party. Scenes of Saddam praying and making pilgrimages to shrines became common on state-run television. While Iraqi morale had been low throughout the war, the attack on al-Faw raised patriotic fervor, as the Iraqis feared invasion. At the same time, Saddam ordered the genocidal al-Anfal Campaign in an attempt to crush the Kurdish resistance, who were now allied with Iran.

The result was the deaths of several hundred thousand Iraqi Kurds, and the destruction of villages, towns, and cities. Iraq began to try to perfect its maneuver tactics. Prior to , the conscription -based Iraqi regular army and the volunteer-based Iraqi Popular Army conducted the bulk of the operations in the war, to little effect. The Republican Guard, formerly an elite praetorian guard , was expanded as a volunteer army and filled with Iraq's best generals. However, due to Saddam's paranoia, the former duties of the Republican Guard were transferred to a new unit, the Special Republican Guard.

Meanwhile, as the Iraqis were planning their strike, the Iranians continued to attack. The Iraqis had elaborately fortified Basra with 5 defensive rings, exploiting natural waterways such as the Shatt-al-Arab and artificial ones, such as Fish Lake and the Jasim River, along with earth barriers. Fish Lake was a massive lake filled with mines, underwater barbed wire, electrodes and sensors. Behind each waterway and defensive line was radar-guided artillery, ground attack aircraft and helicopters; all capable of firing poison gas or conventional munitions.

The Iranian strategy was to penetrate the Iraqi defences and encircle Basra, cutting off the city as well as the Al-Faw peninsula from the rest of Iraq. When the main Iranian attack, Operation Karbala 5 began, many Iraqi troops were on leave. This battle, known for its extensive casualties and ferocious conditions, was the biggest battle of the war and proved to be the beginning of the end of the Iran—Iraq War. At the same time as Operation Karbala 5, Iran also launched Operation Karbala-6 against the Iraqis in Qasr-e Shirin in central Iran to prevent the Iraqis from rapidly transferring units down to defend against the Karbala-5 attack.

The attack was carried out by Basij infantry and the Revolutionary Guard's 31st Ashura and the Army's 77th Khorasan armored divisions. The Basij attacked the Iraqi lines, forcing the Iraqi infantry to retreat. An Iraqi armored counter-attack surrounded the Basij in a pincer movement, but the Iranian tank divisions attacked, breaking the encirclement.

The Iranian attack was finally stopped by mass Iraqi chemical weapons attacks. Operation Karbala-5 was a severe blow to Iran's military and morale. By , Iran had become self-sufficient in many areas, such as anti-tank TOW missiles, Scud ballistic missiles Shahab-1 , Silkworm anti-ship missiles, Oghab tactical rockets, and producing spare parts for their weaponry. Iran had also improved its air defenses with smuggled surface to air missiles.

While it was not obvious to foreign observers, the Iranian public had become increasingly war-weary and disillusioned with the fighting, and relatively few volunteers joined the fight in — Because the Iranian war effort relied on popular mobilization, their military strength actually declined, and Iran was unable to launch any major offensives after Karbala As a result, for the first time since , the momentum of the fighting shifted towards the regular army.

Since the regular army was conscription based, it made the war even less popular. Many Iranians began to try to escape the conflict. As early as May , anti-war demonstrations took place in 74 cities throughout Iran, which were crushed by the regime, resulting in some protesters being shot and killed. Other people including the more nationalistic and religious as well as the clergy, and the Revolutionary Guards, wished to continue the war.

The leadership acknowledged that the war was a stalemate, and began to plan accordingly. On the Iranian home front, the combination of sanctions, declining oil prices, and Iraqi attacks on Iranian oil facilities and shipping took a heavy toll on the economy. While the attacks themselves were not as destructive as some analysts believed, the U. By the end of , Iraq possessed 5, tanks outnumbering the Iranians six to one and fighter aircraft outnumbering the Iranians ten to one. Iraq also became self-sufficient in chemical weapons and some conventional ones and received much equipment from abroad.

While the southern and central fronts were at a stalemate, Iran began to focus on carrying out offensives in northern Iraq with the help of the Peshmerga Kurdish insurgents. The Iranians used a combination of semi-guerrilla and infiltration tactics in the Kurdish mountains with the Peshmerga. During Operation Karbala-9 in early April, Iran captured territory near Suleimaniya, provoking a severe poison gas counter-attack. During Operation Karbala , Iran attacked near the same area, capturing more territory.

Despite that, Iran managed to restore some damaged planes into service. The Iranian Air Force, despite its once sophisticated equipment, lacked enough equipment and personnel to sustain the war of attrition that had arisen, and was unable to lead an outright onslaught against Iraq. The Soviets began delivering more advanced aircraft and weapons to Iraq, while the French improved training for flying crews and technical personnel and continually introduced new methods for countering Iranian weapons and tactics.

The main Iraqi air effort had shifted to the destruction of Iranian war-fighting capability primarily Persian Gulf oil fields, tankers, and Kharg Island and starting late , the Iraqi Air Force moved on a comprehensive campaign against the Iranian economic infrastructure. Navy ships tracked and reported movements of Iranian shipping and defences.

The attacks on oil tankers continued. Both Iran and Iraq carried frequent attacks during the first four months of the year. Iran was effectively waging a naval guerilla war with its IRGC navy speedboats, while Iraq attacked with its aircraft. In , Kuwait asked to reflag its tankers to the U. They did so in March, and the U. Navy began Operation Earnest Will to escort the tankers. Iran also deployed Silkworm missiles to attack some ships, but only a few were actually fired.

Both the United States and Iran jockeyed for influence in the Gulf. To discourage the United States from escorting tankers, Iran secretly mined some areas in the Gulf. The United States began to escort the reflagged tankers, but one of them was damaged by a mine while under escort. While being a public-relations victory for Iran, the United States increased its reflagging efforts.

While Iran mined the Persian Gulf, their speedboat attacks were reduced, primarily attacking unflagged tankers shipping in the area. On 8 October, the U. Navy destroyed four Iranian speedboats, and in response to Iranian Silkworm missile attacks on Kuwaiti oil tankers, launched Operation Nimble Archer , destroying two Iranian oil rigs in the Persian Gulf. Iran managed to shoot down 30 Iraqi fighters with fighter jets, anti-aircraft guns, and missiles, allowing the Iranian air force to survive to the end of the war.

Iran–Iraq War

On 28 June, Iraqi fighter bombers attacked the Iranian town of Sardasht near the border, using chemical mustard gas bombs. While many towns and cities had been bombed before, and troops attacked with gas, this was the first time that the Iraqis had attacked a civilian area with poison gas. While little known outside of Iran unlike the later Halabja chemical attack , the Sardasht bombing and future similar attacks had a tremendous effect on the Iranian people's psyche.

By , with massive equipment imports and reduced Iranian volunteers, Iraq was ready to launch major offensives against Iran. With their allies tankers protected by U. These attacks began to have a major toll on the Iranian economy, morale, and caused many casualties as well. In March , the Iranians carried out Operation Dawn 10 , Operation Beit ol-Moqaddas 2 , and Operation Zafar 7 in Iraqi Kurdistan with the aim of capturing the Darbandikhan Dam and the power plant at Lake Dukan , which supplied Iraq with much of its electricity and water, as well as the city of Suleimaniya. At one point, the United States claimed that Iran had launched the attack and then tried to blame Iraq for it.

Key areas, such as supply lines, command posts, and ammunition depots, were hit by a storm of mustard gas and nerve gas , as well as by conventional explosives. Helicopters landed Iraqi commandos behind Iranian lines while the main Iraqi force attacked in a frontal assault. Within 48 hours, all of the Iranian forces had been killed or cleared from the al-Faw Peninsula. The Iraqis had planned the offensive well. Prior to the attack the Iraqi soldiers gave themselves poison gas antidotes to shield themselves from the effect of the saturation of gas.

The heavy and well executed use of chemical weapons was the decisive factor in the Iraqi victory. To the shock of the Iranians, rather than breaking off the offensive, the Iraqis kept up their drive, and a new force attacked the Iranian positions around Basra. Using artillery, they would saturate the Iranian front line with rapidly dispersing cyanide and nerve gas, while longer-lasting mustard gas was launched via fighter-bombers and rockets against the Iranian rear, creating a "chemical wall" that blocked reinforcement.

The same day as Iraq's attack on al-Faw peninsula, the United States Navy launched Operation Praying Mantis in retaliation against Iran for damaging a warship with a mine. Iran lost oil platforms , destroyers , and frigates in this battle, which ended only when President Reagan decided that the Iranian navy had been put down enough. In spite of this, the Revolutionary Guard Navy continued their speedboat attacks against oil tankers. Faced with such losses, Khomeini appointed the cleric Hashemi Rafsanjani as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces , though he had in actuality occupied that position for months.

With aircraft sorties and heavy use of nerve gas, they crushed the Iranian forces in the area, killing 3, and nearly destroying a Revolutionary Guard division. On 25 May , Iraq launched the first of five Tawakalna ala Allah Trust in God Operations , [86] consisting of one of the largest artillery barrages in history, coupled with chemical weapons. The marshes had been dried by drought, allowing the Iraqis to use tanks to bypass Iranian field fortifications, expelling the Iranians from the border town of Shalamcheh after less than 10 hours of combat.

Iraqi commandos used amphibious craft to block the Iranian rear, [47] then used hundreds of tanks with massed conventional and chemical artillery barrages to recapture the island after 8 hours of combat. These losses included more than of the 1, remaining Iranian tanks, over armored vehicles, 45 self-propelled artillery, towed artillery pieces, and antiaircraft guns.

These figures only included what Iraq could actually put to use; total amount of captured materiel was higher. Since March, the Iraqis claimed to captured 1, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, heavy artillery pieces, 6, mortars, 5, recoilless rifles and light guns, 8, man-portable rocket launchers, 60, rifles, pistols, trucks, and 1, light vehicles. Stephen Pelletier, a Journalist, Middle East expert, and Author, noted that "Tawakal ala Allah … resulted in the absolute destruction of Iran's military machine. During the battles, the Iranians put up little resistance to the Iraqi offensives, having been worn out by nearly eight years of war.

However, this came too late, and due to the capture of of their operable tanks and the destruction of hundreds more, Iran was believed to have fewer than remaining operable tanks on the southern front, faced against thousands of Iraqi ones. Saddam sent a warning to Khomeini in mid, threatening to launch a new and powerful full-scale invasion and attack Iranian cities with weapons of mass destruction. Shortly afterwards, Iraqi aircraft bombed the Iranian town of Oshnavieh with poison gas, immediately killing and wounding over 2, civilians.

The fear of an all out chemical attack against Iran's largely unprotected civilian population weighed heavily on the Iranian leadership, and they realized that the international community had no intention of restraining Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi conventional bombs and missiles continuously hit towns and cities, as well as destroyed vital civilian and military infrastructure, and the death toll increased.

Iran did reply with missile and air attacks as well, but not enough to deter the Iraqis from attacking. Under the threat of a new and even more powerful invasion, Commander-in-Chief Rafsanjani ordered the Iranians to retreat from Haj Omran, Kurdistan on 14 July. Dozens of villages, such as Sardasht , and some larger towns, such as Marivan , Baneh and Saqqez , [] were once again attacked with poison gas, resulting in even heavier civilian casualties. The lack of international sympathy disturbed the Iranian leadership, and they came to the conclusion that the United States was on the verge of waging a full-scale war against them, and that Iraq was on the verge of unleashing its entire chemical arsenal upon their cities.

At this point, elements of the Iranian leadership, led by Rafsanjani who had initially pushed for the extension of the war , persuaded Khomeini to accept the ceasefire. Happy are those who have departed through martyrdom. Happy are those who have lost their lives in this convoy of light. Unhappy am I that I still survive and have drunk the poisoned chalice The news of the end of the war was greeted with celebration in Baghdad, with people dancing in the streets; in Tehran, however, the end of the war was greeted with a somber mood.

Both Iran and Iraq had accepted Resolution but despite the ceasefire, after seeing Iraqi victories in the previous months, Mujahadeen-e-Khalq MEK decided to launch an attack of its own and wished to advance all the way to Teheran. Saddam and the Iraqi high command decided on a two pronged offensive across the border into central Iran and Iranian Kurdistan.

In the north, Iraq also launched an attack into Iraqi Kurdistan, which was blunted by the Iranians.

The Iranians had withdrawn their remaining soldiers to Khuzestan in fear of a new Iraqi invasion attempt, allowing the Mujahedeen to advance rapidly towards Kermanshah , seizing Qasr-e Shirin , Sarpol-e Zahab , Kerend-e Gharb , and Islamabad-e-Gharb. Iranian paratroopers landed behind the MEK lines while the Iranian Air Force and helicopters launched an air attack, destroying much of the enemy columns.

The last notable combat actions of the war took place on 3 August , in the Persian Gulf when the Iranian navy fired on a freighter and Iraq launched chemical attacks on Iranian civilians, killing an unknown number of them and wounding 2, Resolution became effective on 8 August , ending all combat operations between the two countries.

The majority of Western analysts believe that the war had no winners while some believed that Iraq emerged as the victor of the war, based on Iraq's overwhelming successes between April and July While the war was now over, Iraq spent the rest of August and early September clearing the Kurdish resistance. Using 60, troops along with helicopter gunships, chemical weapons poison gas , and mass executions, Iraq hit 15 villages, killing rebels and civilians, and forced tens of thousands of Kurds to relocate to settlements. By 3 September , the anti-Kurd campaign ended, and all resistance had been crushed.

At the war's conclusion, it took several weeks for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran to evacuate Iraqi territory to honor pre-war international borders set by the Algiers Agreement. The Security Council did not identify Iraq as the aggressor of the war until 11 December , some 12 years after Iraq invaded Iran and 16 months following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Iran—Iraq War was the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.

While revolutionary Iran had been bloodied, Iraq was left with a large military and was a regional power , albeit with severe debt, financial problems, and labor shortages. According to Iranian government sources, the war cost Iran an estimated ,—, killed, [26] [27] [29] [36] or up to , according to the conservative Western estimates. Both Iraq and Iran manipulated loss figures to suit their purposes. At the same time, Western analysts accepted improbable estimates.

With the ceasefire in place, and UN peacekeepers monitoring the border, Iran and Iraq sent their representatives to Geneva , Switzerland , to negotiate a peace agreement on the terms of the ceasefire. However, peace talks stalled. Foreign powers continued to support Iraq, which wanted to gain at the negotiating table what they failed to achieve on the battlefield, and Iran was portrayed as the one not wanting peace. They also continued to carry out a naval blockade of Iraq, although its effects were mitigated by Iraqi use of ports in friendly neighbouring Arab countries.

Iran also began to improve relations with many of the states that opposed it during the war. Because of Iranian actions, by , Saddam had become more conciliatory, and in a letter to the now President Rafsanjani, he became more open to the idea of a peace agreement, although he still insisted on full sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab. Rafsanjani reversed Iran's self-imposed ban on chemical weapons, and ordered the manufacture and stockpile of them Iran destroyed them in after ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Iraq had lost its support from the West, and its position in Iran was increasingly untenable.

A peace agreement was signed finalizing the terms of the UN resolution, diplomatic relations were restored, and by late early , the Iraqi military withdrew. The UN peacekeepers withdrew from the border shortly afterward. Most of the prisoners of war were released in , although some remained as late as Most historians and analysts consider the war to be a stalemate. Certain analysts believe that Iraq won, on the basis of the successes of their offensives which thwarted Iran's major territorial ambitions in Iraq and persuaded Iran to accept the ceasefire.

That [Iraq's] explanations do not appear sufficient or acceptable to the international community is a fact Even if before the outbreak of the conflict there had been some encroachment by Iran on Iraqi territory, such encroachment did not justify Iraq's aggression against Iran—which was followed by Iraq's continuous occupation of Iranian territory during the conflict—in violation of the prohibition of the use of force, which is regarded as one of the rules of jus cogens On one occasion I had to note with deep regret the experts' conclusion that "chemical weapons ha[d] been used against Iranian civilians in an area adjacent to an urban center lacking any protection against that kind of attack.

He also stated that had the UN accepted this fact earlier, the war would have almost certainly not lasted as long as it did. Iran, encouraged by the announcement, sought reparations from Iraq, but never received any. Throughout the s and early s, Iran and Iraq relations remained balanced between a cold war and a cold peace. Despite renewed and somewhat thawed relations, both sides continued to have low level conflicts. Iraq continued to host and support the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, which carried out multiple attacks throughout Iran up until the invasion of Iraq including the assassination of Iranian general Ali Sayyad Shirazi in , cross border raids, and mortar attacks.

Iran carried out several airstrikes and missile attacks against Mujahedeen targets inside of Iraq the largest taking place in , when Iran fired 56 Scud missiles at Mujahedeen targets. After the fall of Saddam in , Hamdani claimed that Iranian agents infiltrated and created numerous militias in Iraq and built an intelligence system operating within the country. In , the new government of Iraq apologised to Iran for starting the war.

The war also helped to create a forerunner for the Coalition of the Gulf War , when the Gulf Arab states banded together early in the war to form the Gulf Cooperation Council to help Iraq fight Iran. The unsustainable economic situation compelled the new Iraqi government to request that a considerable portion of debt incurred during the Iran—Iraq war be written off.

The war had its impact on medical science: Iraq's military was accustomed to fighting the slow moving Iranian infantry formations with artillery and static defenses, while using mostly unsophisticated tanks to gun down and shell the infantry and overwhelm the smaller Iranian tank force; in addition to being dependent on weapons of mass destruction to help secure victories. Therefore, they were rapidly overwhelmed by the high-tech, quick-maneuvering U.

At first, Saddam attempted to ensure that the Iraqi population suffered from the war as little as possible. There was rationing, but civilian projects begun before the war continued. After the Iranian victories of the spring of and the Syrian closure of Iraq's main pipeline, Saddam did a volte-face on his policy towards the home front: Mass demonstrations of loyalty towards Saddam became more common.

In the summer of , Saddam began a campaign of terror. More than Iraqi Army officers were executed for their failures on the battlefield. To secure the loyalty of the Shia population, Saddam allowed more Shias into the Ba'ath Party and the government, and improved Shia living standards, which had been lower than those of the Iraqi Sunnis. The most infamous event was the massacre of civilians of the Shia town of Dujail. Despite the costs of the war, the Iraqi regime made generous contributions to Shia waqf religious endowments as part of the price of buying Iraqi Shia support.

Israeli-British historian, Ephraim Karsh, argues that the Iranian government saw the outbreak of war as chance to strengthen its position and consolidate the Islamic revolution, noting that government propaganda presented it domestically as a glorious jihad and a test of Iranian national character. Between 1, and 2, vehicles were hit or abandoned on the main Highway 80 north of Al Jahra.

Several hundred more littered the lesser known Highway 8 to the major southern Iraq military stronghold of Basra. US planes trapped the long convoys by disabling vehicles in the front, and at the rear, and then pounded the resulting traffic jams for hours. This bombing was done with cluster bombs and incendiary rounds from As. A cluster bomb is a weapon containing multiple explosive submunitions. Anybody within the strike area of the cluster munitions, be they military or civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured. On the inland highway to Basra is mile after mile of burned, smashed, shattered vehicles of every description — tanks, armored cars, trucks, autos, fire trucks, according to the March 18, , Time magazine.

However, retreating does not equal surrendered. First of all, Iraqi army was the fourth largest army in the world and had a lot of equipment that was perceived as pretty good by standards. Reasonable people were talking about the US taking 10, casualties during a fight that would last a couple of weeks. The people in charge were trying to respond to a situation that was very different from what they had initially anticipated.

A long line of vehicles, including destroyed Iraqi Army Russian-made T tanks and trucks stand abandoned by fleeing Iraqi troops.

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