Iran-Iraq War

How did the Iran-Iraq war break out?

• September 22,1980, Iraqi jets attack 10 Iranian airfields in the night, Saddam Hussein wanted to destroy Iran’s air force fleet

• Iraqi infantry stormed across the border in 8 different locations

  • objective of Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran + Iraq, had previous agreement in 1975 of shared control, but favored Tehran

What role did religion and ethnicity play?

• During Khomeini’s rise to power, the Shia Iraqis supported it

  • In 1979, Iraqi Shia cleric Baqir al-Sadr congratulated Khomeini + Iraqi govt banned him from traveling to Tehran, demonstrations from Iraqi Shia happened + mass arrests happened, Sadr was thrown into prison + soon executed

    • riots gave Saddam an excuse to execute Shia prisoners in his Sunni controlled state, even deported 35 Shia Iraqis

• Khomeini called for Islamic revolutions nearby

What were the major developments of the war?

• 1st week of war, Iraqi bombs did little damage, Iran launched 140 American made jets, but were unable to replace parts for aircraft in September

• Saddam had expected a weak Khomeini leadership + that Arab Iranians would join the invaders, but thousands of Iranians around the country came to their country’s defense

• Iraq captures Khorramshahr Oct 1980 by fighting Iranian police, marines, naval cadets, 7K casualties, started calling it the “City of Blood”

• Abadan, Iran’s city housing a major oil complex, was heavily defended: Iraqi guns, iranian warplanes, city residents digging trenches—> FAILURE FOR IRAQ

How did the war unfold?

• Iran’s tripled population to Iraq’s advanced war machines

  • “human wave” assaults; night assaults against Iraq’s air command

• 1981, as Iraq gathered 60K troops to besiege Abadan, Shia clerics had taken control of the branches of govt, integrating politics, religious, military

  • Tell their troops to view the war as battle of Islamic forces against nonbelievers

    • Khomeini calls Saddam an “infidel”

• Iran 1981 fall launch counterattack, pushed Iraqi positions around Abadan back

• Now, only Khorramshahr was the big chunk under Iraqi occupation

What role did the US play?

• US POV as war broke out was that Iraqi victory would cause Jordan, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states to revere Iraq + leave the region open to Soviet influence; best case scenario was a limited Iraqi victory that left Iran intact to counterbalance Iraq’s power

Why is US intervention important?

Wha

What was the ‘tilt towards Saddam"‘?

Wh

What were Iraq’s killing fields + what role did the US play in them?