Operation Karbala-4

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Operation Karbala-4
Part of Iran-Iraq War
Date 25 December 1986-27 December 1986 Location Southern Iraq Result Strategic stalemate
Belligerents
Iraq	Iran
Strength
Unknown	60,000
Casualties and losses
~5,000	10,000

Operation Karbala-4 was an Iranian offensive in the Iran-Iraq War on the southern front. The operation was launced after the failure of Operation Karbala-2 and Operation Karbala-3 to move the Iraqi lines in an effort to capture Iraqi territory.

[edit] Prelude

The battle itself was planned and eventually executed by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The operation would be launched under cover of darkness in order to gain a foothold along the Shatt al Arab river. Once across, the Iranian forces would go on the offensive and eventually move onto the port city of Basra.

The Iranian forces consisted mostly of Pasdaran and Basij volunteers of the 'Hussein Corps' from Isfahan. The Corps itself consisted of men and boys between the ages of seventy down to twelve. The Corps did not have the luxury of training like their Iraqi counterparts did, having received anywhere between forty days training to no training whatsoever.

The Iraqi forces consisted mainly of conscript infantry backed by elite Republican Guard tank brigades. The Iraqis held of a strong defense of machine gun nests, mine fields, a series of trenches, concrete bunkers, and barbed wire. In addition, the Iraqis held the luxury of positions behind the artificial 'Fish Lake,' an area flooded by Iraqi engineers of which was 30 kilometers long and 1,800 meters wide. Iraqi engineers even placed electrodes in some places of the lake for further defense. With such defensive measures, the Iraqis dubbed the barrier as the 'wall of steel.'

[edit] The Battle

The operation began during Christmas night of 1986 with elite frogmen of the Pasdaran landing via rubber dinghies an effort to launch a surprise attack. Within time, Iraqi searchlights spotted the frogmen and nearly all perished in a hail of machine gun fire.

The following morning, 60,000 Pasdaran and Basijis crossed the Shatt al-Arab north and south of Khorramshahr in dinghies and motorized seacraft, using the cover of dawn to hide their movements. Almost immediately, the Iranians met the Iraqi defenses waiting for them on the shorelines. A major drawback for the Iranians came in the form of little to no artillery support against the Iraqis.

For three days, the Iraqis pummeled the Iranian forces with artillery, air craft, and machine guns from the defenses. The tattered remains of the Iranian force left only a mess of bodies for the Iraqis to observe upon their retreat.

[edit] Aftermath

The battle killed over 10,000 Iranians in those three days alone. However, this battle proved to be the beginning of a major offensive of which would last until February. The more sophisticated Operation Karbala-5 would be launched two weeks later and would eventually become the largest battle of the whole war.

[edit] Bibliography

1. Essential Histories: The Iran Iraq War 1980-1988, by Efraim Karsh, Osprey Publishing, 2002

2. In The Name of God: The Khomeini Decade, by Robin Wright, Simon and Schuster, 1989

3. In The Rose Garden Of The Martyrs: A Memoir Of Iran, by Christopher de Bellaigue, HarperCollins, 2005

[edit] References

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