The War Between Iran and Iraq

The dividing line amidst the devil sects overlapped the borders of Persia (Iran) and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The first major battle between the Persians and the Arabs took place in 639. Apart from the ethnic tout ensembley distinct Kurds in its north, Persia was basically homogenous, tho by 1980, Shias accounted for fifty four percent of the population of Iraq. al nearly of the holiest Shia shrines are located in Iraq.

Competition and rivalry between the Ottoman Turks which ruled Mesopotamia from 1517 until the end of the First World contend and the Safavid empire in Persia (15011722) were fueled by sectarian enmity and recurring disputes over the disputed boundary between the two empires, especially control over the Shatt alArab waterway which runs from the profound border area down to the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf. Major warfares occurred along the border in the 1600's and in the 19th light speed.

Through the incumbrance of Britain and Russia, two treaties were imposed on the disputants in the 19th century and by the British in 1937 to define navigational rights on the Shatt alArab and to settle territorial reserve claims to its banks, but the demarcation lines and juristic rights of the two countries still remain unsettled. In the early 1970's, the Shah of Iran gave whole aid to a Kurdish rebellion in Federal Iraq and reasserted Iran's claim to control the Shatt alArab. In 1975 in Algiers, Saddam Hussein on behalf of Iraq made territorial conc

From the middle of 1982 and until Iraq's succeederful umbrage in the Fao peninsula in the South in the spring of 1988, Iraq's ground forces was on the defensive and grudgingly gave ground on all fronts. Iran pursued a war of attrition, using its increasingly large ground forces to push the Iraqis back. Successive Iranian offensives enjoyed limited success overall. The Iranian army, and especially the Revolutionary Guards, paid a high school price in terms of casualties and equipment for their human wave attacks. The Iraqis embossed a very(prenominal) large army, 500,000, with a population wiz third the size of Iran's. The Iraqi army improved its simulated military operation and leadership.

According to the Economist, Iraq evolved after 1984 "a defence that combined mould fortifications with quick response and aggressive combat by mail and infantry, all backed by coordinated artillery bombardments" ("Lessons From the war with Iran" 36; Segal 947). Iraq made effective use of cluster bombs and chemical substance weapons (mustard ordnance, phosgenes and nerve gas) which were used with deadly effect on a major battlefield for the first time since World contend I. In one day in 1988, Iraq by gas killed 5,000 of its own people, mostly Kurds, in the Iraqi village of Halabia during an Iranian offensive.

On September 22, 1980, Iraqi jets staged a preventative assault on ten Iranian air bases. shortly thereafter, its army invaded Iran at eight different points. In this initial phase of the war which lasted until March, 1981, Iraqi forces initial phase of the war which lasted until March, 1981, Iraqi forces made significant penetrations into Iran, especially in anointrich Khuzistan and threatened to take Abadan, the site of a very large oil refinery. Caught by surprise, the Iranians retreated on most fronts; however, the Iranian navy imposed a naval prevent on the Shatt alArab and its air force gave a trusty account of itself, forcing Iraq to base most of its air force for a time in neighboring Arab countries. The oil war began with devas
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