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The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War (Arabic: حرب الخليج الأولى), was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 ...
- 22 September 1980 – 20 August 1988, (7 years, 10 months, 4 weeks and 1 day)
- Status quo ante bellum
- Stalemate, both sides claim, victory
- Overview
- Background
- 1980–81: Iraqi offensive and Iranian pushback
- 1982–87: Iranian offensive, stalemate, and the Tanker War
- 1988: Escalation and cease-fire
- Casualties
The prolonged military conflict between Iran and Iraq began during the 1980s. Open warfare began on September 22, 1980, when Iraqi armed forces invaded western Iran along the countries’ joint border. Iraq, however, claimed that the war had begun earlier that month, on September 4, when Iran shelled several border posts.
Who supported Iran during the Iran-Iraq War?
During the Iran-Iraq War, Iran’s only major allies were Syria and Libya. Iraq’s war effort was openly financed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other neighboring Arab states and was tacitly supported by the United States and the Soviet Union.
When did Iran accept the United Nations-mediated cease-fire?
In August 1988, Iran’s deteriorating economy and recent Iraqi gains on the battlefield compelled Iran to accept a United Nations-mediated cease-fire that it had previously resisted.
What is the estimate of total casualties in the Iran-Iraq War?
In the late 1960s the United Kingdom announced its intention to withdraw from the Persian Gulf, setting in motion a geopolitical reconfiguration of the region. Long-standing territorial disagreements between Iran and Iraq were reignited and remained a source of tension throughout the 1970s. With Iraq’s new Baʿath regime facing instability at home, its de facto ruler, Saddam Hussein, conceded some of the country’s claims in 1975 in exchange for the cessation of Iranian meddling in Iraq. The primary concession was the eastern bank of the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab (Persian: Arvand Rūd), a river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that had high strategic value as a principal waterway for the countries’ maritime commerce.
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A History of War
The Iranian Revolution of 1978–79 brought the 1975 agreements into questionable standing. Border clashes began occurring from time to time while signs of Iranian interference in Iraq were pronounced. Leaders of Iran’s Islamic republic indicated their desire to “export” the revolution’s concept of Islamic governance guided by Shiʿi clergy. Ruhollah Khomeini, the ideological architect of the revolution, had already found an audience for his ideas in Iraq when he was living there during his exile. In April 1980 the deputy prime minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, survived an assassination attempt by Iraqi Shiʿis sympathetic to the Iranian Revolution.
In September 1980 the Iraqi army carefully advanced along a broad front into Khūzestān, taking Iran by surprise. Iraq’s troops captured the city of Khorramshahr but failed to take the important oil-refining centre of Ābādān. By December 1980 the Iraqi offensive had bogged down about 50–75 miles (80–120 km) inside Iran after meeting unexpectedly str...
In May 1982 Iranian forces recaptured Khorramshahr. Iraq voluntarily withdrew its forces from all captured Iranian territory soon after and began seeking a peace agreement with Iran.
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But under the leadership of Ruhollah Khomeini, who saw Saddam as an obstacle to the Islamic Revolution, Iran remained intransigent and continued the war in an effort to overthrow the Iraqi leader. In July Iranian forces invaded Iraq’s Al-Baṣrah province. Iraq’s defenses solidified once its troops were defending their own soil, and the war settled down into a stalemate with a static, entrenched front running just inside and along Iraq’s border.
Iran repeatedly launched fruitless infantry attacks, using human assault waves composed partly of untrained and unarmed conscripts (often young boys snatched from the streets), which were repelled by the superior firepower and air power of the Iraqis. Both nations engaged in sporadic air and missile attacks against each other’s cities and military and oil installations.
Despite the conflict being focused in oil-rich regions, the disruption to the global oil flow had been hitherto minimal. But in 1984, with no end to the war in sight, the two countries began attacking each other’s oil-tanker shipping in the Persian Gulf. Iran also attacked tankers headed to and from Kuwait and other Gulf states, prompting the United States and several western European nations to station warships in the Persian Gulf to ensure the flow of oil to the rest of the world. The so-called Tanker War, which included strikes on more than 100 oil tankers, marked an increase in international interest and involvement in the conflict.
In early 1988 Iranian forces, in cooperation with Iraqi Kurds, threatened the area from Kirkūk to the Turkish border and penetrated to the towns of Hājj ʿUmrān and Ḥalabjah in Iraq’s northeastern provinces. They met with stiff resistance in the north, however. Using chemical weapons, Iraqi forces killed as any as 5,000 Kurdish civilians in and around Ḥalabjah in March 1988.
Military operations in the gulf resumed, and in April 1988 Iraq—this time using chemical weapons against the Iranian troops—recaptured the Fāw peninsula. Later it liberated the districts of Salamcha and Majnūn, and in July Iraqi forces once again penetrated deep into Iran. That same month Iran Air flight 655, a passenger plane, was shot down by a U.S. missile cruiser after being mistaken for a fighter jet. The tragedy, which left 290 dead, accentuated the heavy toll the war had taken on civilians in Iran. Now war-weary, Iran finally accepted United Nations Resolution 598 on July 20, and the cease-fire came into force on August 20, 1988.
The war had been one of the most destructive conflicts of the late 20th century. The total number of combatants on both sides is unclear, but both countries were fully mobilized, and most men of military age were under arms. The number of casualties was enormous but equally uncertain. Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number. The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 Kurds were killed by Iraqi forces during the series of campaigns code-named Anfāl (Arabic: “Spoils”) that took place in 1988 (see Kurd).
In August 1990, while Iraq was preoccupied with its invasion of Kuwait (see Persian Gulf War), Iraq and Iran restored diplomatic relations, and Iraq agreed to Iranian terms for the settlement of the war: the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from occupied Iranian territory, division of sovereignty over the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab waterway, and a prisoner-of-war exchange. The final exchange of prisoners was not completed until March 2003.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 9, 2009 · Iran-Iraq War. Iraqi Invasion of Iran. Mindful of Iran’s weakened military in the wake of its revolution, Saddam decided on a preemptive strike against Iran. On September 22, 1980,...
- 4 min
Iran-Iraq War, (1980–88) Protracted and indecisive conflict prompted by Iraq’s invasion of its eastern neighbour. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Iraqi leadership sought to exploit Iran’s military and political chaos in order to resolve border disputes, gain control of Iran’s oil-rich western (largely Arab) province, and ...
Within days, Iraqi forces invaded Iran. At the same time, Iraq bombed Iranian air bases and other strategic targets. In the week following the invasion, the UN Security Council called for a cease-fire and appealed to Iran and Iraq to settle their dispute peacefully.
Mar 22, 2023 · How Iran Won the Iraq War. 5 minute read. Iranian soldiers march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam...
Sep 22, 2020 · Legacy of Iran-Iraq War still reverberates 40 years later. Bitter eight-year battle not only inflicted human and economic devastation, but has impacted Middle East to this day.
