Iran–Iraq War

Iran–Iraq War
Iranian soldier with gas mask in the battlefield.
Date 22 September 1980 – 20 August 1988 Location Persian Gulf, Iranian-Iraqi border Result Stalemate; Strategic Iraqi failure; Tactical Iranian failure Territorial changes Status quo ante bellum; observed by UNIIMOG based on UN Resolution 619.
Belligerents
Iran Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq Islamic Movement of Kurdistan	Iraq¹ People's Mujahedin of Iran Arab League Soldiers and volunteers from different Arab countries[1] Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, Komalah[2][3] United States Navy
Commanders
Ruhollah Khomeini Abolhassan Banisadr Ali Khamenei Ali Sayed Shirazi Mostafa Chamran  †	Saddam Hussein Ali Hassan al-Majid
Strength
305,000 soldiers, 400,000 to 700,000; meaning ±550,000 Pasdaran and Basij militia, 900 tanks, 1,000 armored vehicles, 1,000 artillery pieces, 447 aircraft, 750 helicopters[4]	200,000 in 1980, 800,000 by 1988, 5,000 tanks, 4,000 armored vehicles, 7,330 artillery pieces, 500+ aircraft, 100+ helicopters[5]
Casualties and losses
Iranian government offical figure of 188,015 soldiers, militia, and civilians killed;[6][7], Estimates can range as high as 800,000 dead;[8][9][10][11][12] Economic loss of more than US$500 billion	Est. 250,000-500,000 soldiers, militia, and civilians killed or wounded Economic loss of more than US$500 billion
¹ With support from the U.S.S.R., the People's Republic of China, France, Brazil, Egypt, Denmark, the United States, and other Arab, NATO and Warsaw Pact countries[13][14].

The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the Imposed War (جنگ تحمیلی, Jang-e-tahmīlī) and Holy Defense (دفاع مقدس, Defā'-e-moghaddas) in Iran, and Saddām's Qādisiyyah (قادسيّة صدّام, Qādisiyyat Ṣaddām) in Iraq, and the First Gulf War (حرب الخليج الأولى Ḥarb al-Khalīj al-'Ūlā) in the Arab world (the Persian Gulf War being the Second Gulf War), was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long suppressed Shia majority influenced by Iran's Islamic revolution. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and within several months were repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years Iran was on the offensive.^[15] Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003.^[15][16]

The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage - a half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded - but brought neither reparations nor change in borders. It has been compared to World War I.^[17] Tactics used included trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches and on no-mans land, human wave attacks and Iraq's extensive use of chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds.

Summary

The war began with Iraqi planes bombing Iranian airfields in a failed attempt at destroying the Iranian air force. However, when Iraq advanced into Iran they met unexpectedly stiff resistance. They also came under attack from Iranian aircraft.

The Iraqi Army entered the city of Khorramshahr, suffering 7,000 casualties. Iran retook Khorramshahr in 1982 and captured 19,000 Iraqi soldiers. Iran also managed to force Iraq to withdraw from the city of Abadan in the battle of Abadan. In very heavy fighting, Iran managed to drive the Iraqis out of Iran. Despite fierce Iraqi resistance, Iran slogged their way into Iraq and kept up offensives on Iraqi defenses for the next six years.

Iran sent teenage boys to charge through the minefields, clearing the way for Iranian tanks. Iraq used chemical weapons against the Iranians and even against possibly unreliable civilians of their own in Halabja. The Iranian offensives were mostly repelled, but they did manage to capture the Majnoon Islands, the Al-Faw peninsula a few other small gains.

A major naval battle in the Persian Gulf between the two navies resulted in losses on both sides and an Iranian victory. The Iranian land offensives often resulted in massive casualties for Iran, mainly because of their large scale use of human wave attacks, in which Iranian soldiers were mowed down by the tens of thousands. Iraqi losses were also heavy, and Iraqi soldiers died by the thousands. Both sides launched missiles at each other and Iraqi warplanes bombed Iran, killing thousands of civilians on both sides, in what became known as the 'War of the Cities'.

The war finally ended when both sides, pressured by the United Nations, declared a ceasefire.

Background

History of war's name

The war was commonly referred to as the Gulf War or Persian Gulf War until the Iraq-Kuwait conflict (Operation Desert Storm Jan-Feb 1991), and for a while thereafter as the First Persian Gulf War. The Iraq-Kuwait conflict, while originally known as the Second Persian Gulf War, later became known simply as "The Gulf War." The United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the ongoing conflict there has since been called the Second Persian Gulf War.

Early history

Although the Iran–Iraq War from 1980–1988 was a war for dominance of the Persian Gulf region, the roots of the war go back many centuries. There has been rivalry between kingdoms of Assyria (the Fertile Cresent valley, modern Syria) and the rugged highlands to the East (Persia or modern Iran) since the beginning of recorded history in Sumer.

Of strategic importance was the question of sovereignty over the resource-rich province of Khuzestan. Before the Ottoman empire 1299–1922, Iraq was part of Persia. The rising power of the Ottomans put an end to this when Suleyman I annexed Arabian Iraq. The Turkish Sultan and general, Murad IV recaptured Baghdad from the Safavids of Persia in 1638 via the Treaty of Zuhab (Peace of Qasr-e-Shirin). The border disputes between Persia and the Ottomans never ended. Between 1555 and 1918, Persia and the Ottoman empire signed no fewer than 18 treaties delineating their disputed borders. Today's border comes from the Treaty of Zuhab. Modern Iraq was created from the British Mandate of Mesopotamia, formed after the final collapse of the Ottoman empire following World War I, thereby inheriting all the disputes with Persia.

Saddam Hussein biographers have described Saddam's anti-Iranianism, developed in his formative years living with his virulently anti-Iranian uncle Khairallah Talfah as a factor in his later foreign policy, including the Iran–Iraq War.^[18][19] Talfah was the author of Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies, a pamphlet Saddam's government was later to republish.^[20]

Post-colonial era

On 18 December 1959, the new leader of Iraq Abdul Karim Qassim, declared: "We do not wish to refer to the history of Arab tribes residing in Al-Ahwaz and Mohammareh [Khorramshahr]. The Ottomans handed over Mohammareh, which was part of Iraqi territory, to Iran." The Iraqi regime's dissatisfaction with Iran's possession of the oil-rich Khuzestan province was not limited to rhetorical statements; Iraq began supporting secessionist movements in Khuzestan, and even raised the issue of its territorial claims at the next meeting of the Arab League, without success. Iraq showed reluctance in fulfilling existing agreements with Iran—especially after the death of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the rise of the Ba'ath Party, when Iraq decided to take on the role of "leader of the Arab world".

In 1969, the deputy prime minister of Iraq stated: "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 the Shah of Iran's government. Basra TV stations even began 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 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.^[21] Iraq then expropriated the properties of 70,000 Iraqis of Iranian origin and expelled them from its territory, after complaining to the Arab League and the UN without success.

One of the factors contributing to hostility between the two powers was a dispute over full control of the Arvand Rūd waterway at the head of the Persian Gulf, an important channel for the oil exports of both countries.

In addition to Iraq's fomenting of separatism in Iran's Khuzestan and Iranian Balochistan provinces, both countries encouraged separatist activities by Kurdish nationalists in the other country. During the first few years of the 1980–1988 Iraq-Iran war, the Iraqi government tried to accommodate the Kurds in order to focus on the war against Iran. In 1984, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan agreed to cooperate with Baghdad, but the Kurdish Democratic Party remained opposed.^[22]

In the 1975 Algiers Accord Iraq made territorial concessions — including the waterway — in exchange for normalized relations.

The relationship between Iranian and Iraqi governments briefly improved in 1978, when Iranian agents in Iraq discovered a pro-Soviet coup d'etat against the Iraqi government. When informed of this plot, Saddam Hussein, who was Vice President at the time, ordered the execution of dozens of his army officers, and to return the favor, expelled Ruhollah Khomeini, an exiled leader of clerical opposition to the Shah, from Iraq.

After the Islamic Revolution

See also: Islamic Revolution, Iranian Embassy Siege, and Modern usage of al-Qādisiyyah

American M1A1 tanks in 2003, in front of ‘The Sword of Qādisiyyah’, sometimes known as the ‘Hands of Victory’, opened August 1989.

Iraqi 25-dinar note, with the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah depicted in the background.

The Pan-Islamism and revolutionary Shia Islamism of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran; and the Arab nationalism of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime were central to the conflict.

Saddam Hussein was keenly interested in elevating Iraq to a strong regional power. A successful invasion of Iran would enlarge Iraq's oil reserves and make Iraq the dominant power in the Persian Gulf region.

On several occasions Saddam alluded to the Islamic conquest of Iran in propagating his position against Iran. For example, on 2 April 1980, half a year before the outbreak of the war, in a visit by Saddam to al-Mustansiriyyah University in Baghdad, drawing parallels with 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 Persian 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."^[23]

In turn the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini believed Muslims, particularly the Shias in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, whom he saw as oppressed, could and should follow the Iranian example, rise up against their governments to join a united Islamic republic.^[24] Khomeini and Iran's Islamic revolutionaries despised Saddam's secularist, Arab nationalist Ba'athist regime in particular as un-Islamic and "a puppet of Satan,"^[25] and called on Iraqis to overthrow Saddam and his regime. At the same time severe officer purges (including several executions ordered by Sadegh Khalkhali, the post-revolution sharia ruler), and spare parts 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 Rūd river.

Iraq started the war believing that Sunnis of Iran would join the opposing forces, failing to fully appreciate the power of Iranian nationalism over historically clan-centered differences, and the power of Iranian government control of the press. Few of the ethnic Arabs of Khuzestan or Sunnis of Iran collaborated with Iraqis.

Iran's embassy in London was 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.^[26]

The UN Secretary General report dated 9 December 1991 (S/23273) explicitly cites "Iraq's aggression against Iran" in starting the war and breaching International security and peace.^[27]

Timeline

Main article: Iran–Iraq War timeline

List of major Iranian operations during the war

1. 27 September-29 September 1981: Operation Samen-ol-A'emeh; Iran retakes Abadan.
2. 29 November-mid-December 1981: Operation Tarigh ol-Qods; Iran retakes Bostan and area north of Susangerd.
3. 21 March-30 March 1982: Operation Fath-ol-Mobeen (Operation Undeniable Victory; 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 Ramadan; Failed Iranian offensive to capture Basra.
6. 9 April-17 April 1983: Operation Valfajr-1/Dawn-1; Failed Iranian offensive in Ein Khosh to capture Basra-Baghdad highway.
7. 19 October-mid November 1983: Operation Valfajr-4/Dawn 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/Dawn 8; Three-pronged Iranian offensive leads to capture of al-Faw 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. Iranian Operation captures Kirkuk
15. 16 March 1988: Operation Valfajr-10/Dawn 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; Unsuccessful Iraqi offensive to recapture Al-Faw Peninsula.
3. 17 May 1986; Iraqi offensive captures Mehran.
4. 16 April-18 April 1988; Iraqi offensive recaptures Al-Faw Peninsula. 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.

Order of Battle

Main article: Order of battle during the Iran-Iraq War

Foreign support to Iraq and Iran

Donald Rumsfeld as US special envoy to the Middle East, meets Saddām in December 1983. Ironically, Rumsfeld would later become US Defence Secretary during the 2003 Iraq War which saw Saddam ousted from power, and ultimately executed.

Old Chinese Type 59 in Iraqi colors

Chinese J-7 multirole fighter jet, used by both countries

Chinese Type 69 tank, sold to both countries during the war

French Mirage F-1 fighter bomber, used by Iraq.

Chinese J-6, also used by both countries in air-to-ground sorties

Chinese Type 56 assault rifle, used by both countries

During the war, Iraq was regarded by the West (and specifically the United States) as a counterbalance to post-revolutionary Iran. The support of Iraq took the form of technological aid, intelligence, the sale of dual-use and military equipment and satellite intelligence to Iraq. While there was direct combat between Iran and the United States, it is not universally agreed that the fighting between the U.S. and Iran was specifically to benefit Iraq, or for separate, although occurring at the same time, issues between the U.S. and Iran. American ambiguity towards which side to support was summed up by Henry Kissinger when the American statesman remarked that "it's a pity they [Iran and Iraq] both can't lose."[3] More than 30 countries provided support to Iraq, Iran, or both. Iraq, in particular, had a complex clandestine procurement network to obtain munitions and critical materials, which, in some transactions, involved 6-10 countries. The most practical way to describe such complex procurement is to put the history in the article for the country in which the sale began.

When a country, at the same or different times, supported both Iran and Iraq, the "export control" section of both articles is apt to be identical, assuming it describes a national policy, or, in some cases, the lack of one. When a country made an exception, that will be noted. Articles in the following table detail of support of other nations to either Iran or Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War:

Country	Foreign policy	Support to Iraq	Support to Iran
All countries	International aid to combatants in the Iran–Iraq War
Soviet Union	The Soviet Union and the Iran–Iraq War	Soviet support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war	Soviet support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war
Saudi Arabia		Saudi support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war
Kuwait		Funded Iraq
Jordan		Funded Iraq
United States		U.S. support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war	U.S. support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war
Israel			Israeli support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war
Singapore		Singapore support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war
Italy		Italian support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war
United Kingdom		British support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war
France		French support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war
People's Republic of China
North Korea			North Korean support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war
Brazil
West Germany
East Germany
Portugal
Yugoslavia

Iraq

Among major powers, the United States' policy was to "tilt" toward Iraq by reopening diplomatic channels, lifting restrictions on the export of dual-use technology, overseeing the transfer of third party military hardware, and providing operational intelligence on the battlefield.

As will be seen in some of the country-specific sub-articles of this page, Iraq made extensive use of front companies, middlemen, secret ownership of all or part of companies all over the world, forged end user certificates and other methods to hide what it was acquiring. At this time, the country-level sub-articles emphasize the country in which the procurement started, but also illustrate how procurement infrastructure was established in different countries. Some transactions may have involved people, shipping, and manufacturing in as many as 10 countries.^[28]

British support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war especially illustrated the ways by which Iraq would circumvent export controls. Iraq bought at least one British company with operations in the U.K. and the U.S.

Iraq had a complex relationship with France and the Soviet Union, its major suppliers of actual weapons, to some extent having the two nations compete for its business.

Singapore support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war discusses land mines assembled there, as well as chemical warfare precursors shipped from Singapore, possibly by an Iraqi front company.

Another country that had an important role in arming Iraq was Italy, whose greatest impact was financial, through the U.S. branch of the state-owned largest bank in Italy. The Italian article is one example of how Iraq circumvented a national embargo, by, as one example, moving land and sea mine production to Singapore.

Additional country details will be added as the articles become available, in some cases in stub format for individual yet significant support, such as providing the largest amount of precursor chemicals from which chemical weapons were produced.

Although the United Nations Security Council called for a cease-fire after a week of fighting and renewed the call on later occasions, the initial call was made while Iraq occupied Iranian territory. Moreover, the UN refused to come to Iran’s aid to repel the Iraqi invasion. The Iranians thus interpreted the UN as subtly biased in favor of Iraq ^[29].

Iran

While the United States directly fought Iran, citing freedom of navigation as a major casus belli, as part of a complex and partially illegal program (see Iran-Contra Affair), it also supplied weapons to Iran.

North Korea was a major arms supplier to Iran. Its support provided included weapons it manufactured, Chinese and Soviet weapons for which the major power wanted deniability of the sale, and other Soviet-bloc weapons for which the major powers wanted deniability.

Both Countries

Besides the US and the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia also sold weapons to both countries for the entire duration of the conflict. Likewise Portugal helped both countries: it was not unusual seeing Iranian- and Iraqi-flagged ships side-by-side in Sines (a town with a deep-sea port).

Iran's armament and support

Military armaments/technology

See also: Iran-Contra Affair

During the early years of the war, Iran's arsenal was almost entirely American-made, left over from the Imperial Armed Forces of the dethroned Shah. Iran's foreign supporters gradually came to include Syria and Libya. Iran purchased weaponry from North Korea and the People's Republic of China, notably the Silkworm anti-ship missile. Iran operated many U.S.-manufactured aircraft. Iranian Armored divisions revolved mainly around M60 and Chieftain tanks. The fleet of around 900 tanks was on par with the British Army and these tanks were the most modern versions available. 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 U.S. embassy hostages, though this did eventually result. Proceeds from the sales were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

According to the report of the U.S. Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair issued in November 1987, "the sale of U.S. arms to Iran through Israel began in the summer of 1985, after receiving the approval of President Reagan."^[30] These sales included "2,008 BGM-71 TOW anti-Tank missiles, and 235 parts kits for MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles had been sent to Iran via Israel." Further shipments of up to US$2 billion of American weapons from Israel to Iran, consisting of 18 F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers, 46 A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers, and nearly 4,000 missiles were foiled by the U.S. Department of Justice, and "unverified reports alleged that Israel agreed to sell Iran AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, radar equipment, mortar and machinegun ammunition, field telephones, M-60 tank engines and artillery shells, and spare parts for C-130 transport planes."^[31][32] The London Observer also estimated that Israel's arms sales to Iran during the war totaled US$ 500 million annually,^[33] For more on Israeli Hawk missile sales to Iran see the Financial Times article, "Arms Embargo Which Cannot Withstand The Profit Motive."^[34]

Aircraft

Main article: Iranian Air Force in Iran-Iraq war

During the war, Iran operated U.S.-manufactured F-4, F-5 and F-14 fighters, as well as AH-1 Cobra light attack helicopters, which defended themselves very well against Mi-24s and Gazelle helicopters and had some success defending themselves against Iraqi fighter aircraft. The Iranian Army also possessed M109 Howitzers, Rapier and HAWK missiles, roughly one hundred ZSU-23-4 anti-aircraft systems, and Soviet BM-21 multiple rocket launch vehicles (of the Abash variant). 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 from the United States, 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 367-80.^[35] Missiles of the IRIAF and Islamic Republic of Iran Army (IRIA) were over 2000 Mavericks, thousands of AIM-9B/J/Ps Sidewinders, AIM-54phoenix and AIM-7Es.

Military tactics

Iranian soldiers attacking from the trenches

Iranian soldiers in the trenches

Perhaps the most commented-on and unconventional technique of the war was the use of human wave attacks by Iran, including the use of teenage Basij volunteers, some of whom^[36] sacrificed their lives running over fields of landmines or charging heavy fire to clear the way for Iranian ground assault^[37] or overrun Iraqi positions. Their devotion earned the reverence of pious Iranian revolutionaries and helped drive Iraq from Iran. To this day, the use of estesh-hadiyun (martyrdom-seekers) remains part of Iranian military doctrine. The Iranians also used versatile tactics to mow down the heavier and sluggish Iraqi forces, like when the Romans with their quick speed and versatility managed to eliminate Macedon's unruly and disorganized pikemen.^[38]

Iraq's armament and support

Further information: Arms sales to Iraq 1973–1990, U.S. support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and Iraq-gate (Gulf War)

Military armaments/technology

Iraq's army was primarily equipped 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 Soviet Union, France,^[39] as well as from the People's Republic of China, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, and other sources (including Europe and facilities for making and/or enhancing chemical weapons). Germany,^[40] and other Western countries (among them United Kingdom, France, Spain (Explosivos Alaveses), Canada, Italy and the United States) provided Iraq with biological and chemical weapons technology and the precursors to nuclear capabilities (see below).

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

The U.S. sold Iraq $200 million in helicopters, which were used by the Iraqi military in the war. These were the only direct U.S.-Iraqi military sales and were valued to be about 0.6% of Iraq's conventional weapons imports during the war.^[41]

Ted Koppel of ABC Nightline reported the following, however, on 9 June 1992: "It is becoming increasingly clear that George Bush Sr., operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into [an aggressive power]" and “Reagan/Bush administrations permitted — and frequently encouraged — the flow of money, agricultural credits, dual-use technology, chemicals, and weapons to Iraq.”

According to the New Yorker, the Reagan Administration began to allow Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt to transfer to Iraq American howitzers, helicopters, bombs and other weapons.

The United States, United Kingdom, and Germany also provided "dual use" technology (computers, engines, etc.) that allowed Iraq to expand its missile program and radar defenses. The U.S. Commerce Department, in violation of procedure, gave out licenses to companies for $1.5 billion in dual-use items to be sent to Iraq. The State Department was not informed of this. Over 1 billion of these authorized items were trucks that were never delivered. The rest consisted of advanced technology. Iraq's Soviet-made Scuds had their ranges expanded as a result.^[42][43]

Aircraft

After suffering a severe blow in the Yom Kippur war, when an entire armored division was sent to help Syria, together with MiGs and other military units, and after the clashes happened with Iran, Saddam Hussein spent much money to build an improved air force although it expanded and upgraded its fleet considerably as the war progressed.

For air defense, MiG-21s, and later the more powerful MiG-25s were bought, and Soviet doctrine followed.^[44]

Iraqi helicopter Mil Mi-24 which has been brought down during the Iran–Iraq War in an exposition of a Military museum in Tehran

Large numbers of Soviet Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters were made, which were more effective in close air support, using urban or mountain cover, than for antitank work.^[44] Soviet 3M11 Falanga (NATO reporting name AT-2 SWATTER) were ineffective on helicopters. Iraq bought the Anglo-French Aérospatiale Gazelle scout helicopter with the Euromissile HOT, as Syria already had done.^[35]

Soviet MiG-23 and Su-17 aircraft were not as effective for ground attack. Against shipping and ground targets, Iraq moved to French equipment and doctrine. The Exocet anti-shipping missile, launched first from Super Etendard and then Mirage F-1 aircraft, was effective. Iraqi Mirage F-1 ground attack pilots were trained by France. According to the U.S., "tactical changes accompanied the upgrading of equipment. On bombing missions the Iraqis started to use low-altitude attacks. Precision-guided munitions such as laser-guided bombs were used with increased accuracy."^[44]

Chemical weapons

According to Saddam Hussein's report to the UN, the know-how and material for developing chemical weapons were learned by Iraq from the United States, West Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the People's Republic of China.^[45] Iraqi acquisition of such information and technology from U.S. sources was illegal under export regulations.

In December 2002, Iraq's 1,200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Eastern and Western corporations and countries, as well as individuals, that exported a total of 17,602 tons of "dual use" chemical precursors to Iraq in the past two decades, with potential for both industrial uses and manufacture of chemical weapons. By far, the largest suppliers of precursors for chemical weapons production were in Singapore (4,515 tons), the Netherlands (4,261 tons), Egypt (2,400 tons), India (2,343 tons), and Federal Republic of Germany (1,027 tons). One Indian company, Exomet Plastics (now part of EPC Industrie) sent 2,292 tons of precursor chemicals to Iraq. The Kim Al-Khaleej firm, located in Singapore and affiliated to United Arab Emirates, supplied more than 4,500 tons of VX, sarin, and mustard gas precursors and production equipment to Iraq.^[46]

According to Iraq's declarations, it had procured 340 pieces of equipment used for the production of chemical weapons. More than half came from a German company which re-exported US equipment to disguise its destination and the remainder mostly from France, Spain, and Austria.^[46] In addition, Iraq declared that it imported more than 200,000 munitions made for delivering chemicals, 75,000 came from Italy, 57,500 from Spain, 45,000 from China, and 28,500 from Egypt. Declassified U.S. government documents indicate that the U.S. government had confirmed that Iraq was using chemical weapons "almost daily" during the Iran-Iraq conflict as early as 1983. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was unexpectedly confronted while meeting with Saddam Hussein with the release of a UN that Iraq had used mustard gas and tabun nerve agent against Iranian troops.^[47]

The New York Times reported from Baghdad on 29 March 1984, that "American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with Iraq and the U.S., and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been established in all but name." The chairman of the Senate committee, Don Riegle, said: “The executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think it’s a devastating record”.^[48]

According to the Washington Post, the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq used to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post’s source said that this data was essential to Iraq’s war effort.^[49]

In May 2003, an extended list of international companies involvements in Iraq was provided by The Independent. Howard Teicher and Radley Gayle, stated that 31 Bell helicopters that were given to Iraq by U.S. later were used to spray chemical weapons.^[50]

Iraq's chemical weapons program was mainly assisted by German companies such as Karl Kobe, which built a chemical weapons facility disguised as a pesticide plant. Iraq’s foreign contractors, including Karl Kolb with Massar for reinforcement, built five large research laboratories, an administrative building, eight large underground bunkers for the storage of chemical munitions, and the first production buildings. 150 tons of mustard were produced in 1983. About 60 tons of Tabun were produced in 1984. Pilot-scale production of Sarin began in 1984. Germany also supplied reactors, heat exchangers, condensers and vessels. France, Austria, Canada, and Spain provided similar equipment.

The Al Haddad trading company of Tennessee delivered 60 tons of DMMP, a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in the Gulf War Syndrome. The Al Haddad trading company appears to have been an Iraqi front company. The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. Recent stories in The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. Al-Haddad was charged with conspiring to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon, a design based on the Canadian HARP program. In 1984, U.S. Customs at New York's Kennedy Airport stopped an order addressed to the Iraqi State Enterprise for Pesticide Production for 74 drums of potassium fluoride, a dual-use chemical used in the production of Sarin. The order was placed by Al-Haddad Enterprises Incorporates, owned by an individual named Sahib al-Haddad.^[51]

The U.S. firm Alcolac International supplied one dual-use mustard-gas precursor, thiodiglycol, to Iraq & Iran in violation of U.S. export laws but the U.S. Justice Department for illegal exports indicted the company in 1988 only for its illegal exports to Iran and was forced to pay a fine. Overall between 300-400 tons were sent to Iraq.^[51]

Biological

Iraq did not use biological weapons in the war, but built up its capability during that time. On 25 May 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic 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."^[52] The report then detailed 70 shipments (including Anthrax Bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding that "these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program."^[53] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent Iraq 14 agents "with biological warfare significance," including West Nile virus, according to Riegle's investigators.

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.^[54] 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 [established] 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."

Financial support

Iraq's main financial backers were the oil-rich Persian Gulf states, most notably Saudi Arabia ($30.9 billion), Kuwait ($8.2 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($8 billion).^[55]

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.

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC's Ted Koppel, covered the Iraq-gate story, and the investigation by the U.S. Congress.^[56] This scandal is covered in Alan Friedman's book The Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.

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.

In all, Iraq received $35 billion in loans from the West and between $30 and $40 billion from the Gulf States during the 1980s.^[57]

Comparison of Iraqi and Iranian military strength

The power of the Iranian and Iraqi forces was unbalanced. The strength of Iraq and Iran is seen on the table by The Economist estimates:^[58]

Weapons of mass destruction

See also: Halabja poison gas attack

Chemical weapons, used by Saddam Hussein, killed and injured numerous Iranians and Kurds.

With more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war, Iran is one of the countries most severely afflicted by weapons of mass destruction.^[59]

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. According to a 2002 article in the Star-Ledger:

"Nerve gas 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."^[60]

Iraq also used chemical weapons on Iranian civilians, killing many in villages and hospitals. Many civilians suffered severe burns and health problems, and still suffer from them. Furthermore, 308 Iraqi missiles were launched at population centers inside Iranian cities between 1980 and 1988 resulting in 12,931 casualties.^[59]

On 21 March 1986, the United Nations Security Council made a declaration stating that "members are profoundly concerned by the unanimous conclusion of the specialists that chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops and the members of the Council strongly condemn this continued use of chemical weapons in clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 which prohibits the use in war of chemical weapons." The United States was the only member who voted against the issuance of this statement.^[61]

According to retired Colonel Walter Lang, senior defense intelligence officer for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency at the time, "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern" to Reagan and his aides, because they "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose." He claimed that the Defense Intelligence Agency "would have never accepted the use of chemical weapons against civilians, but the use against military objectives was seen as inevitable in the Iraqi struggle for survival",^[62] The Reagan administration did not stop aiding Iraq after receiving reports of the use of poison gas on Kurdish civilians.^[63][64] 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 Saddam's Ba'athist regime for its use of chemical weapons against Iran throughout the war — particularly since the US and other western powers soon felt obliged to oppose the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and eventually invade Iraq itself to remove Saddam Hussein.

Aftermath of Halabja poison gas attack by Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency also accused Iran of using chemical weapons. These allegations however, have been disputed. Joost Hiltermann, who was the principal researcher for Human Rights Watch between 1992–1994, conducted a two year study, including a field investigation in Iraq, capturing Iraqi government documents in the process. According to Hiltermann, the literature on the Iran–Iraq War reflects a number of allegations of chemical weapons use by Iran, but these are "marred by a lack of specificity as to time and place, and the failure to provide any sort of evidence".^[65]

Gary Sick and Lawrence Potter call the allegations against Iran "mere assertions" and state: "no persuasive evidence of the claim that Iran was the primary culprit [of using chemical weapons] was ever presented".^[66] Policy consultant and author Joseph Tragert also states: "Iran did not retaliate with chemical weapons, probably because it did not possess any at the time".^[67]

At his trial in December 2006, Saddam Hussein said he would take responsibility "with honour" for any attacks on Iran using conventional or chemical weapons during the 1980–1988 war but he took issue with charges he ordered attacks on Iraqis.^[68] A medical analysis of the effects of Iraqi mustard gas is described a U.S. military textbook, and contrasted with slightly different effects in the First World War.^[69]

Aftermath

Main article: Aftermath of the Iran–Iraq War

In media

• Dawn of the World. A film about the Iran–Iraq War, directed by Abbas Fahdel in 2008.
• Alhodood Almultahebah (The Flamed Borders) is an Iraqi film released in 1987. It is considered to be the Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates version of the Iran–Iraq War. The film was a huge hit upon its release, however it is not well known outside Iraq.^[70][71]

• Kilomètre zéro (Kilometer Zero) is a 2005 French film about a young Iraqi who tries to flee Iraq in the late 1980s. However, he is captured and conscripted into the Iraqi army to fight in the Iran–Iraq War.

• Modern Warfare: Global Technologies and Tactics is a documentary that includes a chapter about the Iran Iraq War. ^[72][73][74]

• Persepolis is a French animated film based on the graphic novel of the same name by Marjane Satrapi that portrays Satrapi's experiences during the Iranian Revolution and the Iran–Iraq War.

References

See also

• Iran-Iraq relations
• History of Iran
• Military of Iran
• Military history of Iran
• List of Iranian commanders in the Iran-Iraq War
• Military of Iraq
• History of Iraq
• Saddam's trial and Iran-Iraq War
• Frans Van Anraat
• Iran-Israel relations
• US-Iran relations
• Saddam Hussein - United States relations
• Iran Ajr, the minelaying ship captured by the U.S.
• Morteza Avini, prominent photographer of the Iran–Iraq War
• Kaveh Golestan
• The Night Bus (film)
• Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

External links

• Video Archive of Iran–Iraq War

Wikisource has several original texts related to: Iran–Iraq War

• Documentary about the war Google)
• Iran–Iraq War at the Open Directory Project
• FMFRP 3-203 - Lessons Learned: Iran–Iraq War, 10 December 1990.
• Dutchman charged for selling chemicals to Saddam, BBC, 18 March 2005.
• Sasan Fayazmanesh, Historical Amnesia: The Shoot Down of Iran Air Flight 655, Counterpunch, 11 July 2008, [4].