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Iran-Iraq War
File:Jang.jpg Iranian Soldiers and Iraqi Tanks on the battlefield
Date 22 September 1980–20 August 1988 Location Persian Gulf, Iranian-Iraqi border Result stalemate; United Nations-mandated cease-fire
Belligerents
Iran	Iraq
Casualties and losses
Est. 450,000-957,000	Est. 450,000-650,000

The Iran-Iraq War, also called the First Persian Gulf War, or the Imposed War (جنگ تحمیلی, Jang-e-tahmīlī) in Iran and Saddām's Qādisiyyah (قادسيّة صدّام, Qādisiyyat Saddām) in Iraq, was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988. It was commonly referred to as the (Persian) Gulf War until the Iraq-Kuwait conflict (1990–91), which became known as the Second Persian Gulf War and later simply the Persian Gulf War.

It has been called "the longest conventional warfare of the 20th century", and cost 1 million casualties and US$1.19 trillion. (D. Hiro)

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, the calling of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime and secret encouragement by the US administration (Jimmy Carter, conveyed through Saudi Arabia) who was embroiled in a dispute with the new regime in Iran.

The conflict saw early successes by the Iraqis, but before long they were repelled and the conflict stabilized into a long war of attrition. The United Nations Security Council called upon both parties to end the conflict on multiple occasions, but a ceasefire was not agreed to until 20 August 1988, and the last prisoners of war were not exchanged until 2003. The war irrevocably altered politics in the area, playing into wider global politics and leading to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The war is also noted for extensive use of chemical weapons by Iraqi forces.

Background

Although the Iran-Iraq war of 1980–1988 was a war over dominance of the Persian Gulf region, the roots of the war go back many centuries. There has always been a rivalry between various kingdoms of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and Persia (Iran).

Before the Ottoman empire, Iraq was part of Persia ruled under the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty. The rising power of the Ottomans put an end to this when Murad IV annexed what is today Iraq from the weakening Safavid Persia in 1638. The border disputes between Persia and the Ottomans never ended however. Between 1555 and 1918, Persia and Turkey signed no less than 18 treaties re-addressing their disputed borders. Modern Iraq was created with the British involvement in the region and the final collapse of the Ottoman empire, hence inheriting all the disputes with Persia.

More precisely, the origins of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980–1988 go back to the question of sovereignty over the resource-rich province of Khuzestan. Khuzestan, home to Iran's Elamite Empire, was an independent non-Semitic speaking kingdom whose capital was Susa. Khuzestan has, however, been attacked and occupied by various kingdoms of Mesopotamia (the precursors of modern Iraq) many times.

On 18 December 1959, `Abd al-Karīm Qāsim, who had just taken control over Iraq by a coup d'état, openly declared: "We do not wish to refer to the history of Arab tribes residing in Al-Ahwaz and Mohammareh . The Ottomans handed over Mohammareh, which was part of Iraqi territory, to Iran." The Iraqi regime's dissatisfaction over Iran's possession of oil-rich Khuzestan province was not limited to rhetorical statements; Iraq started supporting secessionist movements in Khuzestan, and even raised the issue of its territorial claims in the next meeting of the Arab League, without any success. Iraq showed reluctance in fulfilling existing agreements with Iran, especially after the death of Egyptian President Gamāl `Abd an-Nāsir and the rise of the Ba`th Party, when Iraq decided to take on the role of "leader of the Arab world".

In 1969, the deputy prime minister of Iraq openly declared: "Iraq's dispute with Iran is in connection with Arabistan (Khuzestan) which is part of Iraq's soil and was annexed to Iran during foreign rule." Soon Iraqi radio stations began exclusively broadcasting into "Arabistan", encouraging Arabs living in Iran and even Balūchīs to revolt against Iran's central government. Basra TV stations even started showing Iran's Khuzestan province as part of Iraq's new province called 'Nasiriyyah', renaming all Iranian cities with Arabic names.

In 1971, Iraq broke off diplomatic relations with Iran after claiming sovereignty rights over the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb in the Persian Gulf, following the withdrawal of the British. Iraq then expelled 70,000 Iranians from Iraq after complaining to the Arab League, and the UN, without any success.

One of the factors contributing to hostility between the two powers was a dispute over full control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway at the head of the Persian Gulf, an important channel for the oil exports of both countries. In 1975, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had sanctioned that Mohammad Rezā' Pahlavī, the Shah of Iran, attack Iraq over the waterway, which was under Iraqi control at the time; soon afterward both nations signed the Algiers Accord, in which Iraq made territorial concessions, including the waterway, in exchange for normalized relations.

Iraq had staged a battle against Iranian forces a year earlier in 1974, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. Iran attempted to destabilize Iraq and encouraged Kurdish nationalists to break up the country, in answer to Iraq's similar activities in Iran's Khuzestan province. Iran's embassy in London was subsequently attacked by Iraqi-sponsored terrorist forces a few months prior to the war in 1980, in what came to be known as The Iranian Embassy Siege.

Saddam Hussein, Iraq's president at that time, was eagerly interested in elevating Iraq to a strong regional power. A successful invasion of Iran would make Iraq the dominant power in the Persian Gulf region and strengthen its lucrative oil trade. Such lofty ambitions were not that far-fetched. Severe officer purges (including several executions ordered by Sādeq Khālkhālī, the post-revolution sharī`ah ruler) and spare part shortages for Iran's American-made equipment had crippled Iran's once mighty military. The bulk of the Iranian military was made up of poorly armed, though committed, militias. Iran had minimal defenses in the Arvand/Shatt al-`Arab river.

Saddām on numerous occasions alluded to the Islamic conquest of Iran in propagating his anti-Persian position against Iran. For example, on 02 April 1980, a half-year before the outbreak of the war, in a visit by Saddām to al-Mustansiriyyah University in Baghdad, drawing parallels to the 7th-Century defeat of Persia in the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah he announced:

"In your name, brothers, and on behalf of the Iraqis and Arabs everywhere we tell those cowards and dwarfs who try to avenge Al-Qadisiyah that the spirit of Al-Qadisiyah as well as the blood and honor of the people of Al-Qadisiyah who carried the message on their spearheads are greater than their attempts." (See Saddām, E3)

The aftermath of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was central to the conflict. The Āyat-Allāh Rūh-Ollāh Khomaynī was threatening to export Islamic revolution to the rest of the Middle East, even though Iran was hardly in any position to do so militarily, for most of the Shah's army had already been disbanded. The Khomeinist camp despised Iraq's Ba`thist secularism in particular, and believed that the oppressed Shī`īs in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait could follow the Iranian example and turn against their governments. At the same time the revolution in Iran, the destabilization of the country and its alienation from the West made it a tempting target to the expansionist Saddām Husayn. In particular he felt that Iranian Sunni citizens would rather join a powerful Sunni-led Iraq than remain in the Shia dominated Iran.

Thus both sides entered the war believing that citizens of the southern portions of the enemy's country - Sunnīs in Iran and Shī`īs in Iraq - would join the opposing forces. Neither seems to have fully appreciated the powers of nationalism over historically clan-centered differences, nor the power of the central state apparatus who controlled the press. In the end both were surprised to find their expected allies turning against them as invaders.

The UN Secretary General report dated 9 December 1991 (S/23273) explicitly states "Iraq's aggression against Iran" in starting the war and breaching International security and peace. (See also "Who started the Iran-Iraq war?" by R.K. Ramazani, The Virginia Journal of International Law 33, Fall 1992, pp. 69–89)

Invasion and repulse

The two nations severed diplomatic relations in June 1980, and sporadic border clashes increased. On September 17, Iraq declared the Shatt al-Arab part of its territory. Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran on September 22 1980, claiming as a pretext, an Iranian assassination attempt on Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.

The objectives of Iraq's invasion of Iran were:

1. Acquisition of the Arvand/Shatt al-Arab waterway as part of Iraqi territory (Iraq's only port connection to The Persian Gulf).
2. Acquisition of the three islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, on the unilateral behalf of the UAE.
3. Annexing Khuzestan (or "Arabistan") as part of Iraqi territory.

The surprise offensive advanced quickly against the still disorganized Iranian forces, advancing on a wide front into Iranian territory along the Mehran-Khorramabad axis in Central Iran and towards Ahvaz in the oil-rich southern province of Khuzestan.

Iraq encountered unexpected resistance, however. Rather than turning against the Ayatollah's government as exiles had promised, the people of Iran rallied around their revolution and mounted far stiffer resistance; an estimated 100,000 volunteers arrived at the front by November. An Iraqi Air Force attack on Iranian airfields was ineffective, and the Iraqis soon found the Iranian military was not nearly as depleted as they had thought. In June of 1982, a successful Iranian counter-offensive recovered the areas previously lost to Iraq.

Most of the fighting for the rest of the war occurred on Iraqi territory, although some have interpreted the Iraqi withdrawal as a tactical ploy by the Iraqi military. By fighting just inside Iraq, Saddām Husayn could rally popular Iraqi patriotism. The Iraqi army could also fight on its own territory and in well- established defensive positions. The Iranians continued to employ unsophisticated human wave attacks, while Iraqi soldiers remained, for the most part, in a defensive posture.

Iraq offered a cessation of hostilities in 1982, but Iran's insistence from July 1982 onward to destroy the Iraqi government prolonged the conflict for another six years of static warfare.

Newly declassified US intelligence (SNIE 34/36.2-82 available here) which explores both the domestic and foreign implications of Iran's apparent (in 1982) victory over Iraq in their then two-year old war shows how US was behind the prolonged conflict to keep Iran from winning the war for numerous reasons which were against the interests of the US. Iran especially had the opportunity to cut off Iraq from the Persian Gulf at Faw Peninsula and win the war in the late stages of the conflict.

The Tanker War and U.S. entanglement

The United States had been wary of the Tehran regime since the Iranian Revolution, not least because of the detention of its Tehran embassy staff in the 1979–81 Iran hostage crisis. Starting in 1982 with Iranian success on the battlefield, the U.S. made its backing of Iraq more pronounced, supplying it with intelligence, economic aid, normalizing relations with the government (broken during the 1967 Six-Day War), and allegedly also supplying weapons .

Starting in 1981, both Iran and Iraq attacked oil tankers and merchant ships, including those of neutral nations, in an effort to deprive the opponent of trade. After repeated Iraqi attacks on Iran's main exporting facility on Khark Island, Iran attacked a Kuwaiti tanker near Bahrain on May 13 1984, and a Saudi tanker in Saudi waters on May 16. Attacks on ships of noncombatant nations in the Persian Gulf sharply increased thereafter, and this phase of the war was dubbed the "Tanker War."

Lloyd's of London, a British insurance market, estimated that the Tanker War damaged 546 commercial vessels and killed about 430 civilian mariners. The largest of attacks were directed by Iran against Kuwaiti vessels, and on November 1 1986, Kuwait formally petitioned foreign powers to protect its shipping. The Soviet Union agreed to charter tankers starting in 1987, and the United States offered to provide protection for tankers flying the U.S. flag on March 7 1987 (Operation Earnest Will and Operation Prime Chance). Under international law, an attack on such ships would be treated as an attack on the U.S., allowing the U.S. to retaliate militarily. This support would protect ships headed to Iraqi ports, effectively guaranteeing Iraq's revenue stream for the duration of the war.

An Iraqi plane accidentally attacked the USS Stark, a Perry class frigate on May 17, killing 37 and injuring 21. But U.S. attention was on isolating Iran; it criticized Iran's mining of international waters, and sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 598, which passed unanimously on July 20, under which it skirmished with Iranian forces. In October 1987, the U.S. attacked Iranian oil platforms in retaliation for an Iranian attack on the U.S.-flagged tanker Sea Isle City.

On April 14 1988, the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts was badly damaged by an Iranian mine. U.S. forces responded with Operation Praying Mantis on April 18, the United States Navy's largest engagement of surface warships since World War II. Two Iranian ships were destroyed, and an American helicopter was shot down, killing the two pilots.

In the course of these escorts by the U.S. Navy, the cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 with the loss of all 290 passengers and crew on July 3 1988. The American government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat, and that the Vincennes was operating in international waters at the time and feared that it was under attack. It has since emerged, however, that the Vincennes was in fact in Iranian territorial waters, and that the Iranian passenger jet was turning away and increasing altitude after take-off. The U.S. paid compensation but never apologised.

Through all of this members of the Reagan Administration had, at the same time, also been secretly selling weapons to Iran; first indirectly (possibly through Israel) and then directly. It claimed that the administration hoped Iran would, in exchange, persuade several radical groups to release Western hostages. (for details see the Iran-Contra Affair). The money from the sales was channeled to equip the Nicaraguan contrarrevolucionarios (Contras), anti-communist rebels.

"War of the Cities"

Toward the end of the war, the land conflict regressed into stalemate largely because neither side had enough self-propelled artillery or airpower to support ground advances.

The relatively professional Iraqi armed forces could not make headway against the far more numerous Iranian infantry. But the Iranians were overmatched in towed and self-propelled artillery, which left their tanks and troops vulnerable. What followed was a blood bath with the Iranians substituting infantry for artillery. Both sides turned to more brutal weapons and tactics.

Iraq's air force soon began strategic bombing against Iranian cities, chiefly Tehran, starting in 1985. In response to these, Iran began launching SS-1 "Scud" missiles against Baghdad. Iraq did not respond in kind against Tehran until early 1988, able to deploy only air raids against the Iranian capital up until that point. In October 1986, Iraqi aircraft attacked civilian passenger trains and aircraft, including an Iran Air Boeing 737 airliner unloading passengers at Shiraz International Airport. 34 elementary and high schools were attacked by Iraqi warplanes in 1986 alone, killing hundreds of children. (source: IRNA archives)

In retaliation for the successful Iranian Karbala-5 operation in the fronts, during the course of 42 days, Iraq attacked 65 cities in 226 sorties, bombing civilian neighborhoods. Eight Iranian cities came under the attack of Iraqi missiles. Sixty-five children were killed during bombings in an elementary school in Borujerd alone. These events became known as "the war of the cities". (Source: ibid.)

The war saw the use of chemical weapons, especially tabun, by Iraq. International antipathy to the Tehran regime meant Iraq suffered few repercussions despite these attacks. The UN eventually condemned Iraq for using chemical weapons against Iran, after the war. Chemical weapons had not been used in any major war since World War I.

Iraq financed, with foreign assistance, the purchase of more technologically advanced weapons, and built more modern, well-trained armed forces. After setbacks on the battlefield it offered to return to the 1975 border. Iran was internationally isolated and facing rising public discontent. Finally, a cease-fire was agreed to on August 20 1988.

Arming the combatants

Iraq's army was primarily armed with weaponry it had purchased from the Soviet Union and its satellites in the preceding decade. During the war, it purchased billions of dollars worth of advanced equipment from the Soviets and the French , as well as from the People's Republic of China, Egypt, Germany, and other sources (including Europe and facilities for making and/or enhancing chemical weapons). Germany along with other Western countries (among them United Kingdom, France, Spain (Explosivos Alaveses), Italy and the United States) provided Iraq with biological and chemical weapons technology and the precursors to nuclear capabilities. Much of Iraq's financial backing came from other Arab states, notably oil-rich Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The source of Iraqi arms purchases between 1970 and 1990 (10 % of the world market during this period) are estimated to be:

Iran's foreign supporters included Syria and Libya, through which it obtained Scuds. It purchased weaponry from North Korea and the People's Republic of China, notably the Silkworm antiship missile. Iran acquired weapons and parts for its Shah-era U.S. systems through covert arms transactions from officials in the Reagan Administration, first indirectly through Israel and then directly. It was hoped Iran would, in exchange, persuade several radical groups to release Western hostages, though this did not result; proceeds from the sale were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

Portugal helped both countries: it was not unusual seeing Iran and Iraqi-flag ships side-by-side in Sines, Portugal (a deep-sea port).

Aircraft

During war, Iran operated U.S.-manufactured F-4 Phantom and F-5 Freedom Fighter fighters, as well as AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. It also operated a number of F-14 Tomcat fighters, which, according to a few sources, proved devastating to the Iraqis in the early phases of the war. However, due to the Iranian government's estrangement, spare parts were difficult to obtain. Despite this the Iranians managed to maintain a constant presence with their Tomcats during the entire conflict, mostly due to a combination of spare parts acquired on the black market and parts made in Iran. These were supported by KC-135s, a refueling tanker based on the Boeing 707.

Iraq's air force used Soviet weapons and reflected Soviet training, although it expanded and upgraded its fleet considerably as the war progressed. It conducted strategic bombing using Tupolev Tu-16 Badgers. Its fighters included the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, later supplemented by large purchases of Sukhoi Su-22s and French Dassault Mirage F1s. It also deployed the Anglo-French Aérospatiale Gazelle attack helicopter and the Exocet antiship missile.

U.S.-Iraqi arms transfers in the war

Western support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war has clearly been established. The United States, the Soviet Union, West Germany, France, many western companies, and Britain provided military support and even components of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction program. The role the United States played in the war against Iran however, although present to some degree, is not as well known.

After the revolution, with the Ayatollahs in power and levels of enmity between Iran and the U.S. running high, early on during the Iran-Iraq war, realpolitikers in Washington came to the conclusion that Saddām was the lesser of the two evils, and hence efforts to support Iraq became the order of the day, both during the long war with Iran and afterward. This led to what later became known as the Iraq-gate scandals.

Much of what Iraq received from the West, however, were not arms per se, but so-called dual-use technology— mainframe computers, armored ambulances, helicopters, chemicals, and the like, with potential civilian uses as well as military applications. It is now known that a vast network of companies, based in the U.S. and elsewhere, fed Iraq's warring capabilities right up until August 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait .

The Iraq-gate scandal revealed that an Atlanta branch of Italy's largest bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, relying partially on U.S. taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. In August 1989, when FBI agents finally raided the Atlanta branch of BNL, the branch manager, Christopher Drogoul, was charged with making unauthorized, clandestine, and illegal loans to Iraq—some of which, according to his indictment, were used to purchase arms and weapons technology.

Beginning in September, 1989, the Financial Times laid out the first charges that BNL, relying heavily on U.S. government-guaranteed loans, was funding Iraqi chemical and nuclear weapons work. For the next two and a half years, the Financial Times provided the only continuous newspaper reportage (over 300 articles) on the subject. Among the companies shipping militarily useful technology to Iraq under the eye of the U.S. government, according to the Financial Times, were Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix, and Matrix Churchill, through its Ohio branch .

Even before the Persian Gulf War started in 1990, the Intelligencer Journal of Pennsylvania in a string of articles reported: "If U.S. and Iraqi troops engage in combat in the Persian Gulf, weapons technology developed in Lancaster and indirectly sold to Iraq will probably be used against U.S. forces ... And aiding in this ... technology transfer was the Iraqi-owned, British-based precision tooling firm Matrix Churchill, whose U.S. operations in Ohio were recently linked to a sophisticated Iraqi weapons procurement network."

Aside from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC's Ted Koppel, the Iraq-gate story never picked up much steam, even though The U.S. Congress became involved with the scandal. FAS report

In December 2002, Iraq's 1,200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Western corporations and countries—as well as individuals—that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades. Many American names were on the list. Alcolac International, for example, a Maryland company, allegedly transported thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, to Iraq. A Tennessee manufacturer contributed large amounts of a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in so-called (Persian) Gulf War Syndrome. A full list of those companies and their involvements in Iraq was provided by The LA Weekly in May 2003. (See also The Independent (UK) report on Wednesday, 18 December, 2002)

On 25 May 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic (meaning disease producing), toxigenic (meaning poisonous) and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It added: These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction.

The report then detailed 70 shipments (including anthrax bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program. See another list here, and another here.

A report by Berlin's Die Tageszeitung in 2002 reported that Iraq's 11,000-page report to the UN Security Council listed 150 foreign companies that supported Saddam Hussein's WMD program. Twenty-four U.S. firms were involved in exporting arms and materials to Baghdad .

Donald Riegle, Chairman of the Senate committee that made the report, said, "UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce, and that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programs." He added, "the executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think that is a devastating record."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent Iraq 14 agents "with biological warfare significance," including West Nile virus, according to Riegle's investigators

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, released a list of U.S. companies and their exports to Iraq. See page 11 of this report: p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11

A timeline of U.S. support for Saddām against Iran. For the Statement of Henry B. Gonzalez, Chairman, House Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs on Iraq-gate, see links given on this page.

More sources:

• University of Missouri School of Journalism database
• University of Sussex report
• A Global Policy Forum Report
• Text of the U.S. Senate Riegle Report
• NSA Archives
• Sydney Morning Herald report
• Litigation of involved corporations
• Consortium News article
• Friedman Alan, Spider's Web: The Secret History of how the White House Illegally Armed Iraq. New York, Bantam Books, 1993.
• Jentleson Bruce, With friends like these: Reagan, Bush, and Saddam, 1982-1990. New York, W. W. Norton, 1994.
• Phythian Mark, Arming Iraq: How the U.S. and Britain Secretly Built Saddam's War Machine. Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1997.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

With more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons during the eight-year war, Iran is, after Japan, one of the world's top afflicted countries by Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The official estimate does not include the civilian population contaminated in bordering towns or the children and relatives of veterans, many of whom have developed blood, lung and skin complications, according to the Organization for Veterans of Iran.

Nerve gas agents killed about 20,000 Iranian soldiers immediately, according to official reports. Of the 90,000 survivors, some 5,000 seek medical treatment regularly and about 1,000 are still hospitalized with severe, chronic conditions. Many others were hit by mustard gas.

Furthermore, 308 Iraqi missiles were launched at population centers inside Iranian cities between 1980 and 1988 resulting in 12,931 casualties.

There is great resentment in Iran that the international community helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal and armed forces, and also that the world did nothing to punish Iraq for its use of chemical weapons against Iran throughout the war — particularly since the US and other western powers later felt obliged to oppose the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and eventually invade Iraq itself to remove Hussein.

Also see The Chemical Attack on Halabja.

Further reading on surviving veterans of these weapons:

• A report on Iranian victims of Iraqi blister agents, Medical Management of Chemical Casualties
• The New Jersey Star Ledger, report
• The South Africa Star, report
• The NY Times report
• MSNBC report
• Report: Iranian WMD Veterans sue Germany
• Vets suing the U.S.
• NPR report on Iranian WMD veterans (audio)
• Medical reports

1. ^ Center for Documents of The Imposed War, Tehran.

Human Wave Attacks in the Iran-Iraq War

Many people claim that the Iran-Iraq conflict spawned a particularly gruesome variant of the human wave attack. The Iranian clergy, with no professional military training, were slow to adopt and apply professional military doctrine. The country at that time lacked sufficient equipment to breach Iraqi minefields and were not willing to risk their small tank force. Therefore, Pasdaran forces and Basij volunteers were often used to sweep over minefields and entrenched positions developed by the more professional Iraqi military. Allegedly, unarmed human wave tactics involving children as young as 9 were employed. One unnamed East European journalist claims to have seen "tens of thousands of children, roped together in groups of about 20 to prevent the faint-hearted from deserting, make such an attack."

There has been a suggestion that girls were more commonly used for frontline mine clearance, and boys for unarmed "assaults." Reliable firsthand accounts of the use of children in human wave attacks are rare, however. The most serious contemporary firsthand account recently surfaced at the end of an article by the technology journalist Robert X. Cringely, who relates the experience of a trip to the front for an unconnected Penthouse magazine assignment. In recent years, however, Cringely's credibility has been questioned, after the San Francisco Chronicle and Stanford University revealed in 1998 that Cringely falsely claimed to hold a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Cringely also falsely claimed to be a former Stanford professor. (The Stanford Daily, 11 November 1998)

Aftermath

The war was disastrous for both countries, stalling economic development and disrupting oil exports. It cost Iran an estimated 1.5 million casualties (1, p. 206), and $350 billion (1, p. 1). Iraq was left with serious debts to its former Arab backers, including US$14 billion loaned by Kuwait, a debt which contributed to Saddām's 1990 decision to invade.

Much of the oil industry in both countries was damaged in air raids. Iran's production capacity has yet to fully recover from the damages during the war.

The war left the borders unchanged. Two years later, as war with the western powers loomed, Saddām recognized Iranian rights over the eastern half of the Shatt al-`Arab, a reversion to the status quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier.

The war was extremely costly, one of the deadliest wars since the Second World War. (Conflicts since 1945 which have surpassed the Iran-Iraq War in terms of casualties include the Vietnam War, Korean War, the Second Sudanese Civil War, and the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Many of the prisoners taken by both sides weren't released until up to 10 years after the conflict was over.

The current president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and most of his cabinet members are veterans of the Iran-Iraq war.

Final ruling

On 9 December 1991, the UN Secretary-General reported the following to the UN Security Council:

That Iraq's explanations do not appear sufficient or acceptable to the international community is a fact. Accordingly, the outstanding event under the violations referred to is the attack of 22 September 1980, against Iran, which cannot be justified under the charter of the United Nations, any recognized rules and principles of international law or any principles of international morality and entails the responsibility for the conflict.

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 been used against Iranian civilians in an area adjacent to an urban centre lacking any protection against that kind of attack" (s/20134, annex). The Council expressed its dismay on the matter and its condemnation in resolution 620 (1988), adopted on 26 August 1988.

List of major Iranian operations during the war

1. 27 September-29 September 1981: Operation Thamen-ol-A'emeh; Iran retakes Abadan.
2. 29 November-mid-December 1981: Operation Tarigh ol-Qods; Iran retakes Abadan and area north of Susangard.
3. 21 March-30 March 1982: Operation Fath-ol-Mobeen; Iran expels Iraqi troops from Dezful-Shush area.
4. 30 April-24 May 1982: Operation Beit-ol-Moqaddas; Iran retakes Khorramshahr and drives Iraqis back across the border.
5. 14 July-28 July 1982: Operation Ramadhan; Failed Iranian offensive to capture Basra.
6. 9 April-17 April 1983: Operation Valfajr-1; Failed Iranian offensive in Ein Khosh to capture Basra-Baghdad highway.
7. 19 October-mid November 1983: Operation Valfajr-4; Iranian offensive in Iraq's Kurdistan near Panjwin makes small gains.
8. 22 February-16 March 1984: Operation Kheibar; Iranian offensive captures the Iraqi Majnoon Islands in the Haur al-Hawizeh marshes.
9. 10 March-20 March 1985: Operation Badr; Unsuccessful Iranian offensive to capture the Basra-Baghdad highway.
10. 9 February-25 February 1986: Operation Valfajr-8; Three-pronged Iranian offensive leads to capture of Fao peninsula.
11. 2 June 1986: Operation Karbala-1.
12. 1 September 1986: Operation Karbala-2; Iranian offensive in the Hajj Umran area of Iraqi Kurdistan.
13. 9 January-26 February 1987: Operation Karbala-5; Iranian offensive in southern Iraq to capture Basra.
14. 21 June 1987: Operation Nasr 4.
15. 16 March 1988: Operation Valfajr-10; Iranian offensive in Iraqi Kurdistan.
16. 27 July 1988: Operation Mersad.

List of major Iraqi operations during the war

1. 22 September-mid November 1980; Iraqi invasion of Iran
2. 9 March-10 March 1986; Unsucessful Iraqi offensive to recapture Fao.
3. 17 May 1986; Iraqi offensive captures Mehran.
4. 16 April-18 April 1988; Iraqi offensive recaptures Fao. Use of chemical weapons
5. 23 May-25 May 1988; Iraqi offensive in northern and central sectors recaptures Shalamche using chemical weapons.
6. 19 June-22 June 1988; Iraqi offensive captures Mehran.
7. 25 June 1988; Iraqi offensive recaptures Majnoon Islands.
8. 12 July 1988; Iraqi offensive retakes all Iraqi territory in the Musian border region.
9. 22 July-29 July 1988; Iraqi offensive along the entire Iran border, captures some territory in the central and southern sectors with the help of Mojahedin-e-Khalq, but fails in the northern sector.

References

• Martsching, Brad. "Iran-Iraq War and Waterway Claims," American University Inventory of Conflict & Environment, May 1998.
• Center for Strategic and International Studies: The Lessons of Modern War: Volume Two - The Iran-Iraq Conflict, with Abraham R. Wagner, Westview, Boulder, 1990.
• Center for Strategic and International Studies: Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iran and Iraq , March 27 2000.
• GlobalSecurity.org: Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
• The Iran-Iraq war: the politics of aggression. Farhang Rajaee. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1993.
• UN Secretary General report to the UNSC: p1 p2 * p3.
• United States Marine Corps: FMFRP 3-203 - Lessons Learned: Iran-Iraq War, 10 December 1990.
• Saddām Husayn. 'Address given'. Baghdād, Voice of the Masses in Arabic, 1200 GMT 02 April 1980. FBIS-MEA-80-066. 03 April 1980, E2-3.
• D. Hiro. The Longest War. 1991. ISBN 0-415-90406-4
• A list of Iraq's wars and conflicts.

See also

• Military of Iran
• Al-Faw Peninsula
• Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990
• Battle of al-Qādisiyyah
• Frans Van Anraat
• History of Iran
• History of Iraq
• Iran-Israel relations
• Iranian Air Force in Iran-Iraq war
• Iran Ajr, the minelaying ship captured by the U.S.
• Mostafa Chamran, Minister of Defense killed during the Iran-Iraq war.
• Operation Prime Chance, the United State's involvement
• Saddam's trial and Iran-Iraq War
• US-Iran relations
• Military history of Iran

External links and further reading

• List of US companies and countries that sold chemical weapons to Iraq
• More indepth reading, includes many links
• Video footage from the war
• Iraqi nerve agents
• Paul Reynolds. How Saddam could embarrass the West, BBC, December 16 2003. (regarding foreign powers which armed Iraq)
• Global map of countries who took sides in the Iran-Iraq war
• Kendal Nezan. When our 'friend' Saddam was gassing people, Le Monde Diplomatique, March 1998.
• Robert Fisk. Poison gas from Germany, The Independent, December 30 2000.
• Lev Lafayette. Who armed Saddam?, World History Archives, July 26 2002.
• Norm Dixon. How the U.S. armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons, Green Left Weekly, August 28 2002.
• Neil Mackay, F. Arbuthnot. How did Saddam get his Chemical Weapons?, Sunday Herald, September 8 2002.
• U.S. helped Saddam acquire Biological Weapons, Congressional Record, September 20 2002.
• Eric Margolis. British helped Saddam develop biological weapons, The American Conservative, October 7 2002.
• Robert Fisk. America wants us to forget about the sources of Saddam's WMD, The Independent, October 8 2002.
• Robert Fisk. Did Saddam's army test poison gas on missing 5000?, The Independent, December 13 2002.
• Elaine Sciolino. Iraq WMD condemned, but West once looked the other way, New York Times, February 13 2003.
• Paul Bond. British built Chemical Weapons plant in Iraq, World Socialist Web Site, March 13 2003.
• Tom Drury. How Iraq built its weapons programs: with help from the West, St. Petersburg Times, March 16, 2003.
• Iraqi scientist reports on German, other help for Iraq Chemical Weapons program, Al-Zaman, December 1 2003.
• Elaine Sciolino. Saddam's gas victims blame the West, New York Times, February 14 2003.
• Eddie Davers. Australia's support for Saddam in the 1980s, Overland, Autumn 2003.
• Alan Maass. When the U.S. supported Saddam: The crimes of a U.S. ally, Socialist Worker, January 2, 2004.
• Joseph Kay, A. Lefebvre. The diplomacy of imperialism: Washington-Saddam connection, World Socialist Web Site, March 19 2004.
• Alex Lefebvre. The diplomacy of imperialism: Reagan administration deepens ties with Saddam, World Socialist Web Site, March 24 2004.
• Alex Lefebvre. The diplomacy of imperialism: U.S. financial assistance for Saddam in the 1980s, World Socialist Web Site, March 26 2004.
• Joseph Kay. The diplomacy of imperialism: The end of the Iran-Iraq war, World Socialist Web Site, March 29 2004.
• Joseph Kay, A. Lefebvre. The diplomacy of imperialism: American policy after the Iran-Iraq war, World Socialist Web Site, April 2 2004.
• Robert Fisk. When I reported Saddam's use of mustard gas, British government told me to stop criticizing our ally, Saddam, The Independent, April 10 2004.
• Norm Dixon. How Reagan armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons, CounterPunch, June 17 2004.
• Jacob Hornberger. Reagan’s WMD connection to Saddam, Future of Freedom Foundation, June 18 2004.
• Aaron Glantz. The West should go on trial with Saddam, Inter Press Service, June 18 2004.
• 100,000 Iranians are victims of chemical weapons, supplied by the West, IRNA, June 30, 2004.
• Eric Margolis. Put Saddam's backers on trial, Foreign Correspondent, December 20 2004.
• Dutchman charged for selling chemicals to Saddam, BBC, March 18, 2005.
• Iranian survivors of nerve gas attack testify in Chemical Frans' trial, IRNA, December 1, 2005.
• Dutchman know the chemicals were for nerve agents, Agence France-Presse, December 3, 2005.
• Trial Watch: Frans Van Anraat
• Chemical Frans: Saddam's Dutch link, BBC, December 23, 2005.
• Jeff Moore. Saddam: Made in the USA, Bainbridge Neighbors for Peace.
• Shaking hands with Saddam: U.S. supports for Iraq in the 1980s, U.S. National Security Archive.
• A report on Iranian victims of Iraqi blister agents, Medical Management of Chemical Casualties

Iranian sources

• John King. Arming Iraq: A Chronology of U.S. Involvement, Iran Chamber Society, March 2003.
• Iran Veterans Affairs Organization
• Memoirs, photos, and essays about the war, Iranian.com.
• Isfahan's War Veterans Foundation.
  • Pictures from the foundation's war memorial museum:
• Islamic Republic News Agency, Sacred Defense Epic
• Martyr Avini's website (in Persian): A prominent photographer of the war.

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• Wars of Iran
• Wars of Iraq