--- title: "The Iran-Iraq War: Eight Years of Trench Warfare, Human Waves, and Chemical Weapons" description: "On September 22nd, 1980, air strikes suddenly rang out across Iran's air bases. As the country's armed forces scrambled to put together a response, reports came in of a full ground invasion of the western border, spearheaded in three separate locations. The picture assembled almost instantly. The long-running tensions with Iraq had finally snapped, and Saddam Hussein was now launching a full-scale invasion of his neighbor.\n\nWhat followed was not the swift, decisive campaign Saddam had imagined. It became eight years of tank battles, trench warfare, and human wave tactics on a scale not seen since the First World War, capped by the use of chemical weapons against soldiers and civilians alike. By the time it ended, the conflict had drawn in superpowers, redrawn no borders at all, and left somewhere near two million people dead.\n\nThis is the story of the Iran-Iraq War, the devastating eight-year struggle between two of the Middle East's most populous nations, and the long shadow it cast across the region for decades afterward.\n\nThe war that began in 1980 was not an isolated event. It grew out of a revolution that upended one of the West's closest regional partners, and it ended by setting in motion a chain of consequences that ran all the way to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the execution of Saddam Hussein himself.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n- The revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini's subsequent purge stripped the Iranian military of more than 12,000 officers and countless trained pilots and mechanics, reducing a force once rated fifth or sixth most powerful on Earth to near-collapse — the vulnerability Saddam sought to exploit.\n- Iraq's September 22nd, 1980 invasion opened a 400-mile front and concentrated four of six divisions on Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province, where the port city of Khorramshahr fell only after weeks of brutal close-quarters fighting.\n- Iran's revolutionary fervor turned the invasion into a recruiting drive; its human wave tactics broke through defensive lines but at staggering human cost, while Operation Ramadan gained roughly 50 square kilometers at the price of more than 20,000 dead.\n- The war spread to the sea in the Tanker War, where attacks on shipping drew in the US Navy, and to the air in the \"war of the cities,\" with mustard gas, Scud missiles, and the bombing of population centers killing tens of thousands of civilians.\n- Iran accepted UN Resolution 598 in 1988 after Iraqi missile threats emptied much of Tehran; the war ended with no territorial change, around two million casualties, and debts that pushed Iraq toward its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.\n\n## Iran's New Path\n\nFrom a 21st-century vantage point it sounds almost implausible, but Iran was once among the strongest allies of the Western world. Viewed as a crucial bulwark against Soviet expansion in the Middle East, it was armed to the teeth with some of the West's best weapons, tanks, and aircraft — including the supersonic American F-4 Phantom and the advanced F-14 Tomcat. This was no minor regional player. Through the 1970s, many military experts rated Iran as possessing the fifth or sixth most powerful armed forces on Earth.\n\nThe relationship ran deep. Around 25,000 American technicians were sent to teach their Iranian counterparts how to maintain the foreign equipment, while Iranian pilots traveled to the United States for training. It was growing into an alliance for the ages. But that friendship was about to be shattered, essentially overnight.\n\nIn the late 1970s, Iran was gripped by a national revolution. What began as demonstrations escalated over the following months as businesses were burned and fighting broke out with the government. At the heart of the unrest was widespread anger at the way the Shah — the king — had run the country as an authoritarian monarch, and the people wanted him gone.\n\nHis 26-year reign came to an end in 1979 when guerrilla fighters defeated the Shah's troops in vicious street fighting in Tehran. That cleared the way for a referendum to establish a new constitution, this one centered on a particular interpretation of Shia Islam. The new head of state, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, now commanded an Islamist theocracy — one that rapidly turned anti-Western in character, severing many of the ties and agreements that had bound Iran to its former allies.\n\n## A Military Hollowed Out\n\nThe revolution carried a steep military cost. The chaos drove large numbers of trained pilots and engineers out of the country, leaving numerous complicated foreign vehicles in the hands of understaffed and undertrained teams. The aircraft and tanks that had made Iran so formidable were only as good as the people who could keep them running, and those people were leaving.\n\nKhomeini, now the country's Supreme Leader, made matters considerably worse. He quickly ordered a purge of the armed forces. Dozens of high-ranking officials were executed, and many more were imprisoned or exiled. In total, more than 12,000 officers were removed from their positions. Combined with the skilled pilots and mechanics killed or exiled during the revolution, and the thousands who deserted the ranks to flee the purges, the effect was catastrophic. Iran's once-invincible army was now on the verge of crumbling from neglect.\n\nThe whole world had its eyes on Iran at the time — this was enormous news around the globe. But one country was more concerned with the turn of events than anyone else: Iran's neighbor to the west, Iraq.\n\n## The Road to Invasion\n\nIran and Iraq had been at each other's throats for quite a while by this point. Border clashes over the Shatt al-Arab River throughout the early 1970s had already led to more than a thousand deaths. That dispute was supposed to have been resolved by the 1975 Algiers Agreement, which carved up the area, splitting it between the two nations, and called for a ceasefire.\n\nThe friction ran beyond the border. Iran had long been wary of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and for years had supported Kurdish rebels fighting the Iraqi government, sending them both financial and military aid. The Algiers Agreement was meant to end that interference as well, and was part of the reason Iraq signed it, despite the terms slightly favoring Iran.\n\nBut the treaty fixed little. Kurdish rebels resumed their struggle a short while later, leading to years of brutal fighting that drove a hundred thousand Kurdish refugees into Turkey. Iraq, for its part, was never pleased with how the negotiations had gone in the first place — but for a time, it was in no position to do anything about it.\n\nThat changed when the Iranian Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the government. Iran was in chaos and its army was weakened. Saddam could now justify military action as a way to prevent the ideology of the Islamic revolution from spreading into Iraq. And a quick defeat might cause Iran's fragile new government to collapse altogether. Taken together, it formed a near-perfect basket of excuses for war.\n\n## The Invasion Begins\n\nOn September 22nd, 1980, the Iraqi invasion began. Iraq was confident that its men and ground equipment were superior, but its main worry was the Iranian Air Force. So, in an effort to cripple Iran's aircraft before they could get off the ground, Iraq opened the war with a surprise bombing run against Iranian airfields — a move perhaps inspired by Israel's success in the Six-Day War.\n\nTen air bases were the main targets, but Iraq failed to do much damage, largely because it lacked aircraft capable of striking so deep into enemy territory. Even at airfields that were hit — among them one in Tehran, bombed by three Iraqi MiG-23s — Iran's jets emerged mostly unscathed, having been safely hidden inside hardened aircraft shelters that protected them from the blasts. The only real damage was to runways, which were quickly repaired.\n\nOn the ground, the picture was very different. Later that day, Iraqi divisions began their assault, crossing the border into Iran in a three-pronged attack that created a frontline measuring 400 miles, or 640 kilometers, in length. Across the three groups, Saddam's army numbered an estimated 150,000 soldiers and as many as 2,000 tanks. Iran had just as many or more, but as established, much of its equipment was in poor condition or simply inoperable.\n\n## Designs on Khuzestan\n\nThe northern advance pushed only a few kilometers into Iran before setting up defensive positions, as that group was largely meant to protect Iraq's oil pipeline in the event of a counterattack. At the same time, the central advance quickly occupied the provincial capital of Mehran and continued to the edge of the Zagros Mountains.\n\nBut of the six divisions Iraq deployed in the opening stage, four were sent to the southern front, into Iran's Khuzestan province. Already at this point analysts began to speculate that the true motive for the invasion was to annex this province — which happens to be rich in oil. The professed fear of Iranian revolutionary ideology may well have been a convenient cover for a far more material objective.\n\nOn the evening of the invasion's first day, Iraqi tanks rumbled into Khuzestan, pushing ahead at full speed and aiming for a blitzkrieg-style punch into the region. Their forces quickly reached the province's capital, Khorramshahr, which sat on the right bank of the Shatt al-Arab River. But instead of a steamrolling victory, the Iraqi divisions met a fierce, determined defense.\n\n## The Battle for Khorramshahr\n\nFirst, Iraqi forces surrounded the city, forming a crescent around it, and began blasting it with artillery. When the bombardment finished, the entire city lay shrouded in smoke and rubble. Thousands of civilians were killed on the city's western edge, electricity and water were completely cut off, and the train station was annihilated.\n\nThere was no time to admire the work of the guns. Immediately after the last shell fell, 500 Iraqi tanks were already heading down the main road, looking to enter the city. Somehow, these tanks were held off by Iranian recoilless rifles, which disabled dozens and forced the rest to take a more cautious approach. By dawn the next day, most of these anti-tank outposts had been neutralized — but it had bought precious time. By then, the Iranian forces inside the city had already prepared layers of defenses.\n\nIraqi forces finished encircling Khorramshahr, cutting it off completely from reinforcements, and began sending in thousands of troops. The defenders fought ferociously in close quarters with small arms, concentrating lethal fire on tanks with rocket-propelled grenades and even Molotov cocktails. The real game-changer was Iran's use of dozens of British-made Chieftain tanks, which almost always came out on top against the T-62s they faced. Despite heavily outnumbering the defenders, the Iraqis took such high casualties in this first attack that they withdrew entirely and reassessed.\n\nAfter regrouping, they concentrated their attacks on critical infrastructure — the city's main bridge and its river ports. Using heavy shelling and quick commando units, Iraq took control of these fairly quickly, coming one step closer to seizing the city. Day after day, the thunder of artillery shook Khorramshahr as Iranian snipers fired from windows and threw whatever they could at the advancing armor. But by November 1980, ammunition was low, exhaustion was high, and casualties were higher still. Once Iraqi forces reached the center of the city, Iranian tanks struggled to fight in the narrow streets, and the defenders began fleeing. By November 10th, Khorramshahr had fallen, and Iraq was poised to take full control of Khuzestan.\n\n## Iran Strikes Back\n\nSaddam had hoped that the pressure of an invasion would be enough to make the Iranian people turn on their new Islamist government. To his surprise, he achieved quite the opposite. Iran viewed the war as a holy defense of their nation, and people lined up by the thousands to protect their land. The armed forces that had seemed so weakened before the war were now filling their ranks so quickly the military struggled to keep up.\n\nIran was not entirely on the defensive in those first weeks either. Immediately after Iraq's surprise bombing, Iran whipped up its own retaliatory air strikes. In total, more than 200 Iranian aircraft took to the skies, including 58 F-4s, 88 F-5s, and 60 F-14s. At least 140 of these crossed into Iraq and bombed eleven air bases, including Baghdad International Airport. To avoid radar detection, the aircraft flew as close to the ground as possible on their way to their targets — so low at times that power cables became one of the biggest risks to the pilots. In one case, a billboard caught on the tail of an F-4 and was not discovered until the jet had landed.\n\nThese strikes were followed by several more aerial operations, including the daring Operation Scorch Sword, in which four Iranian F-4s flew deep into enemy territory and bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. The stated aim was to prevent Iraq from developing nuclear weapons for use in the conflict, though the raid did only minor damage. For failing to detect the Iranian jets, Saddam ordered the execution of Colonel Fakhri Hussein Jaber, the head of Iraq's Western Defense Zone, along with anyone above the rank of major associated with the failure.\n\nAll the while, Iran's air strikes kept coming. By the time Iraq had occupied Khorramshahr, Iran had reportedly reduced its air capabilities by 50 percent. The strange result was a war split in two dimensions: Iraq dominated on the ground, while above it, Iran held air superiority. There was no telling which way the tide would turn — only that the war was doomed to rage on.\n\n## Operation Victory and the Battle of Dezful\n\nBy late 1980, the Iraqi invasion had slowed nearly to a standstill. Iran's leaders saw the opening, and before the opportunity could slip away, they launched a counteroffensive codenamed Operation Victory, with the goal of expelling the Iraqis and perhaps pushing further still.\n\nThe main engagement of Operation Victory was the Battle of Dezful, fought near a city in Khuzestan province. It turned out to be the largest tank battle of the entire war, with 330 Iranian tanks facing off against 350 Iraqi tanks. The Iranian armor was mostly of US and British origin, while the Iraqi tanks were mostly Soviet — but the real factor that decided the battle was strategy.\n\nIran launched several diversionary attacks before the main operation began in January 1981, but the Iraqis were not fooled. They had placed their tanks in critical locations along important roads and had even dug some of their T-72s into the muddy hillsides. Once the armored divisions came into sight of each other, the battle proved remarkably one-sided. Iranian tank formations were disorganized and their infantry inexperienced. Iraq, by contrast, had infantry equipped with various anti-tank weapons and attack helicopters on standby. In the slaughter that followed, 214 Iranian tanks were destroyed along with 100 infantry fighting vehicles. Iraq emerged having lost only 45 tanks to combat, 50 infantry fighting vehicles, and 3 helicopters.\n\n## Crimson Sand: The War Becomes the Western Front\n\nIran suffered a major defeat at Dezful, but fortunately for it, Iraq was unable to capitalize on the momentum. As both sides dug in along defensive lines and launched pointless attacks on one another, a strange pattern emerged — miles and miles of trenches, lined with barbed wire. Each side lost thousands of men in vain attempts to cross no-man's-land, but the trenches were too hard to crack, and tanks were too vulnerable during the advance to be of much use. Frustrated with the deadlock, Iraq began using chemical weapons, including mustard and chlorine gas. These were illegal under the Geneva Convention, of course, but Saddam did not seem to care.\n\nIf this picture sounds oddly familiar, it is because it is eerily reminiscent of the First World War. Imagine the Western Front in 1916, except instead of France it is the desert, with supersonic fighter jets soaring overhead instead of biplanes. This anachronistic scene would last for much of 1981. Iraq hoped such brutal combat would tire out its enemies, but stories from the frontline only invigorated more Iranians to enlist.\n\nWith so many fresh soldiers at its disposal, Iran began using its most horrifying tactic yet: human waves. Huge crowds of lightly armed Iranian soldiers would flood a weak point in the Iraqi trenches, and despite absolutely massive casualties, they would often overpower the defenders by sheer numbers. After these waves reached their target, they would be followed by reinforcements of mechanized divisions. Thousands upon thousands of Iranians died in these bloody charges. They were ultimately successful in breaking through several defensive lines, but the frontline did not shift much overall. The most notable event of this period was Operation Opera, a risky airstrike carried out by the Israeli Air Force that finished destroying Iraq's nuclear reactor.\n\n## Operation Undeniable Victory and the Liberation of Khorramshahr\n\nBy 1982, Iran was ready for another counteroffensive. Since Iraq had denied them their first Operation Victory, they assembled a sequel — Operation Undeniable Victory — with the lofty goal of liberating Khuzestan province. The battle began with Iran thundering forward in a two-pronged attack, aiming for a pincer movement around the Iraqi forces.\n\nThe ensuing fighting was some of the bloodiest and most chaotic of the 20th century — thousands of tanks facing off in the desert, the deafening screams of jets overhead, and the horror of human wave attacks. But this time there would be no stalemate. Within just six days, Iran had encircled and annihilated three entire Iraqi divisions, inflicting the staggering loss of 25,000 men, with 20,000 more captured. 361 Iraqi tanks had been destroyed, along with 18 aircraft and more than 300 other vehicles. Iraq's southern corridor had been smashed in, and a retreat was ordered.\n\nThe Iraqi forces fell back to Khorramshahr, which they had taken in the early months of the war nearly two years earlier. But this time Iran had the upper hand. After another unbelievably brutal battle in May 1982, which produced 20,000 more casualties and another 500 destroyed tanks, Khorramshahr was liberated. Iraq was forced to retreat once again, pushed almost all the way back to the pre-war border. Saddam was so enraged by his army's failure that he executed anyone deemed responsible for the retreat — which ended up being more than 200 individuals.\n\nOperation Undeniable Victory had been a huge success, and with their enemies now retreating at full speed, Iran showed no signs of stopping.\n\n## Shifting Tides and Saddam's Defiance\n\nThe invasion of Iran had become an overall failure, and the tide was now turning against Iraq, as Iranian forces continued building up along the border, poised to invade at any moment. In a somewhat desperate move, Saddam announced that he was suing for peace, offering an immediate ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Iranian territory within 14 days. But the Supreme Leader of Iran was no longer interested in peace. He declared that Iran would not only invade Iraq, but that it would not stop fighting until Saddam's regime had been toppled and replaced with an Islamic Republic.\n\nBack in Baghdad, the Iraqi government scrambled to come up with a response. Some suggested new military offensives, but the army was in far too poor a condition for that. The Minister of Health suggested that Saddam could momentarily step down to appease Iran, and after peace had been negotiated, return to power. Saddam asked if anyone else in the cabinet agreed with the proposal, and when no hands were raised, he escorted the man into the next room and shot him in the head with his pistol before resuming the meeting. The message was clear: it did not matter how bad things got — Saddam would never back down.\n\nHe had reason to be confident in his army. Despite losing tens of thousands of soldiers so far, he still had an active force of more than 200,000 men and was receiving plenty of international aid. Countries supporting Iraq included the United States, which provided information from spy satellites after declaring that it could not, under any circumstances, let Iraq lose the war. France sold various helicopters and Mirage F-1 fighter jets, and the Soviet Union — displeased with Iran for destroying its local communist party — began selling tanks and spare parts to Iraq. Iran, by contrast, remained under strict economic sanctions and had to rely on importing ammunition and weapons from China, Pakistan, and North Korea.\n\n## Operation Ramadan: A Criminal Failure\n\nDespite the economic disadvantage, Iran did hold one trump card — morale. Propaganda across the country depicted the war as a holy conflict, promising glory in martyrdom for Allah and bringing boys as young as 12 to sign up by the thousands to prove their allegiance. With so many soldiers at its disposal, Iran was ready to follow through on its promise to overthrow Saddam's regime.\n\nInitially, the plan was to launch an all-out attack on Baghdad, but Iranian leadership rejected the idea as too risky. Instead, they decided it would be more effective to capture smaller provinces, push slowly through the country, and hopefully turn the population against Saddam.\n\nOn July 13th, 1982, Iran's offensive began, codenamed Operation Ramadan. More than 100,000 Iranian troops charged forward in huge waves, throwing themselves at the weak points in Iraqi defenses. But Iraq was ready for the waves this time, having entrenched artillery and tanks to counter the human floods, and Iran suffered unimaginable losses in the first days of fighting. Iraq also deployed large amounts of tear gas, sending entire battalions into disarray as they choked on the fumes, making them easy targets for artillery and helicopter strikes.\n\nBut Iran had plenty of men to spare, and those who fell were quickly replaced. After three days, they had pushed 16 kilometers deep into Iraqi territory before Iraqi air strikes forced them back near the border. A few days later, they pushed 13 kilometers in and were driven back once again, this time on the verge of total annihilation, narrowly escaping encirclement. A couple of weeks later, they attacked for a final, desperate time, capturing a small amount of Iraqi land before the fighting died down. Operation Ramadan lasted only a few weeks, but it produced more than 20,000 deaths, 80,000 wounded, and thousands of destroyed vehicles — all to occupy just 50 square kilometers of Iraqi territory. As one historian put it, the operation was \"by any standard, a criminal failure of leadership and strategy.\" Iran had gained essentially nothing of strategic value, save for destroying a good number of Iraqi tanks, but at a price far too high.\n\n## The Marshes and the War of Attrition\n\nFollowing the failed offensive, the war shifted back to one of attrition, as both sides continued to launch attacks across the vast frontline to no avail. Iran's human wave tactics were even used to clear minefields, which, as one can imagine, resulted in unbelievable loss of life. Throughout 1983 and 1984, Iran launched 10 separate Operation Dawns, most of which achieved very little, except Operation Dawn 4, which retook some territory in the north.\n\nOver these months, Iran began shying away from human wave tactics and started trying new approaches, such as the marsh battles, where forces would engage Iraqi troops while wading through thick water and mud, often at night. It was hoped that these wetlands would offer a favorable way to sneak through the Iraqi defenses. But as Iranian forces advanced through the wet terrain, they encountered mustard gas, underwater electrical wires, and poisoned water. The marshes quickly became one of the deadliest places in the war — a near-certain death sentence for any soldier assigned there.\n\n## The Tanker War\n\nIn 1984, Syria — which was on Iran's side throughout the conflict — closed a crucial pipeline that killed off Iran's oil exports. Losing those exports was catastrophic for the country's economy, which was now hemorrhaging billions of dollars every month. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait stepped in to provide economic assistance, but the situation had given Saddam a new idea. If he began attacking Iranian merchant ships, he might provoke Iran into closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil tankers that provides the only route from the Persian Gulf to open sea. If that strait closed, foreign superpowers would almost certainly intervene, and the war could be ended in no time at all.\n\nSo, in 1984, Iraq began targeting Iranian ships, civilian and military alike. Generally using helicopters and attack planes purchased from France, dozens of Iranian ships were struck, set ablaze, and even sunk over the following year. Iran responded with similar attacks, and in what became known as the Tanker War, ships from all nations were targeted. Just as Saddam had hoped, the world's eyes turned to the region's oil supplies, and several Western nations deployed warships to protect their commerce.\n\nThe United States, under President Ronald Reagan, went above and beyond the rest, allowing friendly tankers to be reflagged with the American stars and stripes, granting them the protection of the US Navy. It was an extremely risky decision, courting the total involvement of the United States, but even the presence of powerful navies was not enough to stop the attacks. The closest the US came to direct involvement was when the USS Stark was targeted by an Iraqi jet, which fired two missiles at the vessel, striking its port side. The second missile penetrated the hull and exploded in the crew quarters, killing 37 and injuring 21. It was never determined whether the attack was intentional, and the pilot went unpunished back in Iraq. Saudi Arabia was also nearly pulled into the conflict when it scrambled two F-15 fighters to protect one of its shipping vessels and ended up shooting down two Iranian F-4s.\n\n## The War of the Cities\n\nWhile the Tanker War raged at sea, Iraq had finally begun to dominate the skies over Iran. The lack of spare parts and engineers was taking its toll, and as the war progressed, Iran could no longer seriously compete for air superiority. Saddam ordered the so-called \"war of the cities\" to begin, in which huge squadrons embarked on bombing runs across Iranian cities. These included some of the largest-scale bombing missions since the end of the Second World War, and civilian deaths skyrocketed into the tens of thousands across 11 major cities.\n\nIraq also began importing Soviet-made Scud missiles and launched them at civilian targets wherever it pleased. Iran responded with its own bombing runs, specifically targeting Baghdad. Iraq's use of mustard bombs also increased as it imported more of the necessary chemicals. In one attack on the city of Sardasht, more than 100 civilians were killed and 5,000 were burned and injured by the toxic substance.\n\n## The Final Months\n\nThroughout 1986 and 1987, while each side continued various attacks along the frontline, Saddam sent multiple offers for a ceasefire. Iran rejected all of them, determined to win the war. Both sides were enacting policies of total war, and Iraq had even started drafting university students.\n\nBut the attitude really began to change in 1988, when Iraq stepped up its terror attacks. Fueled by massive weapons imports, Iraq's army had nearly doubled in size over the previous couple of years, and since it was now spending more than 50 percent of its entire GDP on the war, its military industry was booming — especially missile production. More than 500 missiles in total were fired at Iranian cities, and Iran struggled to respond. Saddam then threatened to begin arming the long-range missiles with chemical weapons, causing 30 percent of Tehran's population to flee the city immediately.\n\nThe Supreme Leader of Iran, now facing the prospect of weapons of mass destruction and a second Iraqi invasion stronger than the first, accepted UN Resolution 598 and began working toward a ceasefire. It was signed in August 1988, ending all hostilities between the two countries.\n\n## The Ghost Left Behind\n\nThe Iran-Iraq War had resulted in almost no territorial changes whatsoever, with both sides returning to their pre-war boundaries. It had, however, decimated hundreds of cities, and the total number of casualties is somewhere in the ballpark of 2,000,000 people — more than half of which came from the vicious combat on the frontlines.\n\nBoth nations were severely in debt after the war ended. While Iran would slowly work on rebuilding, it was this debt, combined with a newly strengthened army, that would lead Iraq to make another terrible decision: the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. This time, however, Iraq would be no match for the coalition forces it faced.\n\nIraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran was met at the time with international scorn. But the condemnation did not end there. The experience of the Iran-Iraq War added serious credibility to later accusations that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century — accusations that ultimately led the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. In the end, Saddam's invasion of Iran in 1980 had not only sparked one of the deadliest wars in recent history, but perhaps set off a domino effect that ended with his regime destroyed and with him executed by his own people.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Why did Saddam Hussein invade Iran in 1980?\n\nThe 1979 revolution had thrown Iran into chaos and gutted its military, presenting what appeared to be an easy opportunity. Saddam could justify the attack as stopping the spread of the Islamic revolution's ideology into Iraq, and he hoped a quick defeat would collapse Iran's fragile new government entirely. Analysts also suspected the real motive was to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan province, where four of Iraq's six invading divisions were concentrated.\n\n### How had Iran's once-powerful military become so vulnerable before the invasion?\n\nThrough the 1970s, Iran was rated among the fifth or sixth most powerful armed forces on Earth, armed with advanced US aircraft including the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat. The 1979 revolution drove out trained pilots and engineers, and Khomeini's subsequent purge removed more than 12,000 officers, leaving sophisticated foreign equipment in the hands of understaffed and undertrained teams. The result was that Iran's once-formidable army was on the verge of collapse precisely when Saddam chose to strike.\n\n### What were Iran's human wave tactics, and what did they achieve?\n\nHuge crowds of lightly armed Iranian soldiers would flood a weak point in Iraqi trenches, overpowering defenders by sheer numbers despite massive casualties, and were then followed by mechanized reinforcements. The tactic broke through several Iraqi defensive lines but at staggering human cost — Operation Ramadan alone produced more than 20,000 deaths and 80,000 wounded to gain just 50 square kilometers of Iraqi territory. Iran even used human waves to clear minefields.\n\n### What was the Tanker War, and how did it draw in the United States?\n\nBeginning in 1984, Iraq began attacking Iranian merchant and military ships, hoping to provoke Iran into closing the Strait of Hormuz and forcing superpower intervention to end the conflict. Iran retaliated, targeting ships from all nations. The United States under President Reagan reflagged friendly tankers with the American flag and deployed the US Navy to protect them; the USS Stark was subsequently struck by two Iraqi missiles, killing 37 and injuring 21.\n\n### How did the war end, and what were its long-term consequences?\n\nIran's Supreme Leader accepted UN Resolution 598 after Iraqi missile barrages and threats to arm long-range missiles with chemical weapons drove 30 percent of Tehran's population from the city. A ceasefire was signed in August 1988, ending the war with no territorial changes and around two million total casualties. Iraq emerged deeply in debt, a financial strain that contributed directly to Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait — and Iraq's documented use of chemical weapons during the war later lent credibility to accusations that led to the 2003 US invasion.\n\n" url: https://warfronts.pub/article/iran-iraq-war-modern-day-holy-war.md canonical: https://warfronts.pub/article/iran-iraq-war-modern-day-holy-war datePublished: 2026-06-02 dateModified: 2026-06-02 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://warfronts.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Warfronts image: "https://media.warfronts.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/bZjJpH34G1g/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 9f5620f50fd9b247bba503dd5f7405697dfa4d90a02776ad8e81a83181c576e0 tokens: 8137 summaryUrl: https://warfronts.pub/article/iran-iraq-war-modern-day-holy-war.md.summary.md --- On September 22nd, 1980, air strikes suddenly rang out across Iran's air bases. As the country's armed forces scrambled to put together a response, reports came in of a full ground invasion of the western border, spearheaded in three separate locations. The picture assembled almost instantly. The long-running tensions with Iraq had finally snapped, and Saddam Hussein was now launching a full-scale invasion of his neighbor. What followed was not the swift, decisive campaign Saddam had imagined. It became eight years of tank battles, trench warfare, and human wave tactics on a scale not seen since the First World War, capped by the use of chemical weapons against soldiers and civilians alike. By the time it ended, the conflict had drawn in superpowers, redrawn no borders at all, and left somewhere near two million people dead. This is the story of the Iran-Iraq War, the devastating eight-year struggle between two of the Middle East's most populous nations, and the long shadow it cast across the region for decades afterward. The war that began in 1980 was not an isolated event. It grew out of a revolution that upended one of the West's closest regional partners, and it ended by setting in motion a chain of consequences that ran all the way to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the execution of Saddam Hussein himself. ## Key Takeaways - The revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini's subsequent purge stripped the Iranian military of more than 12,000 officers and countless trained pilots and mechanics, reducing a force once rated fifth or sixth most powerful on Earth to near-collapse — the vulnerability Saddam sought to exploit. - Iraq's September 22nd, 1980 invasion opened a 400-mile front and concentrated four of six divisions on Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province, where the port city of Khorramshahr fell only after weeks of brutal close-quarters fighting. - Iran's revolutionary fervor turned the invasion into a recruiting drive; its human wave tactics broke through defensive lines but at staggering human cost, while Operation Ramadan gained roughly 50 square kilometers at the price of more than 20,000 dead. - The war spread to the sea in the Tanker War, where attacks on shipping drew in the US Navy, and to the air in the "war of the cities," with mustard gas, Scud missiles, and the bombing of population centers killing tens of thousands of civilians. - Iran accepted UN Resolution 598 in 1988 after Iraqi missile threats emptied much of Tehran; the war ended with no territorial change, around two million casualties, and debts that pushed Iraq toward its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. ## Iran's New Path From a 21st-century vantage point it sounds almost implausible, but Iran was once among the strongest allies of the Western world. Viewed as a crucial bulwark against Soviet expansion in the Middle East, it was armed to the teeth with some of the West's best weapons, tanks, and aircraft — including the supersonic American F-4 Phantom and the advanced F-14 Tomcat. This was no minor regional player. Through the 1970s, many military experts rated Iran as possessing the fifth or sixth most powerful armed forces on Earth. The relationship ran deep. Around 25,000 American technicians were sent to teach their Iranian counterparts how to maintain the foreign equipment, while Iranian pilots traveled to the United States for training. It was growing into an alliance for the ages. But that friendship was about to be shattered, essentially overnight. In the late 1970s, Iran was gripped by a national revolution. What began as demonstrations escalated over the following months as businesses were burned and fighting broke out with the government. At the heart of the unrest was widespread anger at the way the Shah — the king — had run the country as an authoritarian monarch, and the people wanted him gone. His 26-year reign came to an end in 1979 when guerrilla fighters defeated the Shah's troops in vicious street fighting in Tehran. That cleared the way for a referendum to establish a new constitution, this one centered on a particular interpretation of Shia Islam. The new head of state, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, now commanded an Islamist theocracy — one that rapidly turned anti-Western in character, severing many of the ties and agreements that had bound Iran to its former allies. ## A Military Hollowed Out The revolution carried a steep military cost. The chaos drove large numbers of trained pilots and engineers out of the country, leaving numerous complicated foreign vehicles in the hands of understaffed and undertrained teams. The aircraft and tanks that had made Iran so formidable were only as good as the people who could keep them running, and those people were leaving. Khomeini, now the country's Supreme Leader, made matters considerably worse. He quickly ordered a purge of the armed forces. Dozens of high-ranking officials were executed, and many more were imprisoned or exiled. In total, more than 12,000 officers were removed from their positions. Combined with the skilled pilots and mechanics killed or exiled during the revolution, and the thousands who deserted the ranks to flee the purges, the effect was catastrophic. Iran's once-invincible army was now on the verge of crumbling from neglect. The whole world had its eyes on Iran at the time — this was enormous news around the globe. But one country was more concerned with the turn of events than anyone else: Iran's neighbor to the west, Iraq. ## The Road to Invasion Iran and Iraq had been at each other's throats for quite a while by this point. Border clashes over the Shatt al-Arab River throughout the early 1970s had already led to more than a thousand deaths. That dispute was supposed to have been resolved by the 1975 Algiers Agreement, which carved up the area, splitting it between the two nations, and called for a ceasefire. The friction ran beyond the border. Iran had long been wary of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and for years had supported Kurdish rebels fighting the Iraqi government, sending them both financial and military aid. The Algiers Agreement was meant to end that interference as well, and was part of the reason Iraq signed it, despite the terms slightly favoring Iran. But the treaty fixed little. Kurdish rebels resumed their struggle a short while later, leading to years of brutal fighting that drove a hundred thousand Kurdish refugees into Turkey. Iraq, for its part, was never pleased with how the negotiations had gone in the first place — but for a time, it was in no position to do anything about it. That changed when the Iranian Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the government. Iran was in chaos and its army was weakened. Saddam could now justify military action as a way to prevent the ideology of the Islamic revolution from spreading into Iraq. And a quick defeat might cause Iran's fragile new government to collapse altogether. Taken together, it formed a near-perfect basket of excuses for war. ## The Invasion Begins On September 22nd, 1980, the Iraqi invasion began. Iraq was confident that its men and ground equipment were superior, but its main worry was the Iranian Air Force. So, in an effort to cripple Iran's aircraft before they could get off the ground, Iraq opened the war with a surprise bombing run against Iranian airfields — a move perhaps inspired by Israel's success in the Six-Day War. Ten air bases were the main targets, but Iraq failed to do much damage, largely because it lacked aircraft capable of striking so deep into enemy territory. Even at airfields that were hit — among them one in Tehran, bombed by three Iraqi MiG-23s — Iran's jets emerged mostly unscathed, having been safely hidden inside hardened aircraft shelters that protected them from the blasts. The only real damage was to runways, which were quickly repaired. On the ground, the picture was very different. Later that day, Iraqi divisions began their assault, crossing the border into Iran in a three-pronged attack that created a frontline measuring 400 miles, or 640 kilometers, in length. Across the three groups, Saddam's army numbered an estimated 150,000 soldiers and as many as 2,000 tanks. Iran had just as many or more, but as established, much of its equipment was in poor condition or simply inoperable. ## Designs on Khuzestan The northern advance pushed only a few kilometers into Iran before setting up defensive positions, as that group was largely meant to protect Iraq's oil pipeline in the event of a counterattack. At the same time, the central advance quickly occupied the provincial capital of Mehran and continued to the edge of the Zagros Mountains. But of the six divisions Iraq deployed in the opening stage, four were sent to the southern front, into Iran's Khuzestan province. Already at this point analysts began to speculate that the true motive for the invasion was to annex this province — which happens to be rich in oil. The professed fear of Iranian revolutionary ideology may well have been a convenient cover for a far more material objective. On the evening of the invasion's first day, Iraqi tanks rumbled into Khuzestan, pushing ahead at full speed and aiming for a blitzkrieg-style punch into the region. Their forces quickly reached the province's capital, Khorramshahr, which sat on the right bank of the Shatt al-Arab River. But instead of a steamrolling victory, the Iraqi divisions met a fierce, determined defense. ## The Battle for Khorramshahr First, Iraqi forces surrounded the city, forming a crescent around it, and began blasting it with artillery. When the bombardment finished, the entire city lay shrouded in smoke and rubble. Thousands of civilians were killed on the city's western edge, electricity and water were completely cut off, and the train station was annihilated. There was no time to admire the work of the guns. Immediately after the last shell fell, 500 Iraqi tanks were already heading down the main road, looking to enter the city. Somehow, these tanks were held off by Iranian recoilless rifles, which disabled dozens and forced the rest to take a more cautious approach. By dawn the next day, most of these anti-tank outposts had been neutralized — but it had bought precious time. By then, the Iranian forces inside the city had already prepared layers of defenses. Iraqi forces finished encircling Khorramshahr, cutting it off completely from reinforcements, and began sending in thousands of troops. The defenders fought ferociously in close quarters with small arms, concentrating lethal fire on tanks with rocket-propelled grenades and even Molotov cocktails. The real game-changer was Iran's use of dozens of British-made Chieftain tanks, which almost always came out on top against the T-62s they faced. Despite heavily outnumbering the defenders, the Iraqis took such high casualties in this first attack that they withdrew entirely and reassessed. After regrouping, they concentrated their attacks on critical infrastructure — the city's main bridge and its river ports. Using heavy shelling and quick commando units, Iraq took control of these fairly quickly, coming one step closer to seizing the city. Day after day, the thunder of artillery shook Khorramshahr as Iranian snipers fired from windows and threw whatever they could at the advancing armor. But by November 1980, ammunition was low, exhaustion was high, and casualties were higher still. Once Iraqi forces reached the center of the city, Iranian tanks struggled to fight in the narrow streets, and the defenders began fleeing. By November 10th, Khorramshahr had fallen, and Iraq was poised to take full control of Khuzestan. ## Iran Strikes Back Saddam had hoped that the pressure of an invasion would be enough to make the Iranian people turn on their new Islamist government. To his surprise, he achieved quite the opposite. Iran viewed the war as a holy defense of their nation, and people lined up by the thousands to protect their land. The armed forces that had seemed so weakened before the war were now filling their ranks so quickly the military struggled to keep up. Iran was not entirely on the defensive in those first weeks either. Immediately after Iraq's surprise bombing, Iran whipped up its own retaliatory air strikes. In total, more than 200 Iranian aircraft took to the skies, including 58 F-4s, 88 F-5s, and 60 F-14s. At least 140 of these crossed into Iraq and bombed eleven air bases, including Baghdad International Airport. To avoid radar detection, the aircraft flew as close to the ground as possible on their way to their targets — so low at times that power cables became one of the biggest risks to the pilots. In one case, a billboard caught on the tail of an F-4 and was not discovered until the jet had landed. These strikes were followed by several more aerial operations, including the daring Operation Scorch Sword, in which four Iranian F-4s flew deep into enemy territory and bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. The stated aim was to prevent Iraq from developing nuclear weapons for use in the conflict, though the raid did only minor damage. For failing to detect the Iranian jets, Saddam ordered the execution of Colonel Fakhri Hussein Jaber, the head of Iraq's Western Defense Zone, along with anyone above the rank of major associated with the failure. All the while, Iran's air strikes kept coming. By the time Iraq had occupied Khorramshahr, Iran had reportedly reduced its air capabilities by 50 percent. The strange result was a war split in two dimensions: Iraq dominated on the ground, while above it, Iran held air superiority. There was no telling which way the tide would turn — only that the war was doomed to rage on. ## Operation Victory and the Battle of Dezful By late 1980, the Iraqi invasion had slowed nearly to a standstill. Iran's leaders saw the opening, and before the opportunity could slip away, they launched a counteroffensive codenamed Operation Victory, with the goal of expelling the Iraqis and perhaps pushing further still. The main engagement of Operation Victory was the Battle of Dezful, fought near a city in Khuzestan province. It turned out to be the largest tank battle of the entire war, with 330 Iranian tanks facing off against 350 Iraqi tanks. The Iranian armor was mostly of US and British origin, while the Iraqi tanks were mostly Soviet — but the real factor that decided the battle was strategy. Iran launched several diversionary attacks before the main operation began in January 1981, but the Iraqis were not fooled. They had placed their tanks in critical locations along important roads and had even dug some of their T-72s into the muddy hillsides. Once the armored divisions came into sight of each other, the battle proved remarkably one-sided. Iranian tank formations were disorganized and their infantry inexperienced. Iraq, by contrast, had infantry equipped with various anti-tank weapons and attack helicopters on standby. In the slaughter that followed, 214 Iranian tanks were destroyed along with 100 infantry fighting vehicles. Iraq emerged having lost only 45 tanks to combat, 50 infantry fighting vehicles, and 3 helicopters. ## Crimson Sand: The War Becomes the Western Front Iran suffered a major defeat at Dezful, but fortunately for it, Iraq was unable to capitalize on the momentum. As both sides dug in along defensive lines and launched pointless attacks on one another, a strange pattern emerged — miles and miles of trenches, lined with barbed wire. Each side lost thousands of men in vain attempts to cross no-man's-land, but the trenches were too hard to crack, and tanks were too vulnerable during the advance to be of much use. Frustrated with the deadlock, Iraq began using chemical weapons, including mustard and chlorine gas. These were illegal under the Geneva Convention, of course, but Saddam did not seem to care. If this picture sounds oddly familiar, it is because it is eerily reminiscent of the First World War. Imagine the Western Front in 1916, except instead of France it is the desert, with supersonic fighter jets soaring overhead instead of biplanes. This anachronistic scene would last for much of 1981. Iraq hoped such brutal combat would tire out its enemies, but stories from the frontline only invigorated more Iranians to enlist. With so many fresh soldiers at its disposal, Iran began using its most horrifying tactic yet: human waves. Huge crowds of lightly armed Iranian soldiers would flood a weak point in the Iraqi trenches, and despite absolutely massive casualties, they would often overpower the defenders by sheer numbers. After these waves reached their target, they would be followed by reinforcements of mechanized divisions. Thousands upon thousands of Iranians died in these bloody charges. They were ultimately successful in breaking through several defensive lines, but the frontline did not shift much overall. The most notable event of this period was Operation Opera, a risky airstrike carried out by the Israeli Air Force that finished destroying Iraq's nuclear reactor. ## Operation Undeniable Victory and the Liberation of Khorramshahr By 1982, Iran was ready for another counteroffensive. Since Iraq had denied them their first Operation Victory, they assembled a sequel — Operation Undeniable Victory — with the lofty goal of liberating Khuzestan province. The battle began with Iran thundering forward in a two-pronged attack, aiming for a pincer movement around the Iraqi forces. The ensuing fighting was some of the bloodiest and most chaotic of the 20th century — thousands of tanks facing off in the desert, the deafening screams of jets overhead, and the horror of human wave attacks. But this time there would be no stalemate. Within just six days, Iran had encircled and annihilated three entire Iraqi divisions, inflicting the staggering loss of 25,000 men, with 20,000 more captured. 361 Iraqi tanks had been destroyed, along with 18 aircraft and more than 300 other vehicles. Iraq's southern corridor had been smashed in, and a retreat was ordered. The Iraqi forces fell back to Khorramshahr, which they had taken in the early months of the war nearly two years earlier. But this time Iran had the upper hand. After another unbelievably brutal battle in May 1982, which produced 20,000 more casualties and another 500 destroyed tanks, Khorramshahr was liberated. Iraq was forced to retreat once again, pushed almost all the way back to the pre-war border. Saddam was so enraged by his army's failure that he executed anyone deemed responsible for the retreat — which ended up being more than 200 individuals. Operation Undeniable Victory had been a huge success, and with their enemies now retreating at full speed, Iran showed no signs of stopping. ## Shifting Tides and Saddam's Defiance The invasion of Iran had become an overall failure, and the tide was now turning against Iraq, as Iranian forces continued building up along the border, poised to invade at any moment. In a somewhat desperate move, Saddam announced that he was suing for peace, offering an immediate ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Iranian territory within 14 days. But the Supreme Leader of Iran was no longer interested in peace. He declared that Iran would not only invade Iraq, but that it would not stop fighting until Saddam's regime had been toppled and replaced with an Islamic Republic. Back in Baghdad, the Iraqi government scrambled to come up with a response. Some suggested new military offensives, but the army was in far too poor a condition for that. The Minister of Health suggested that Saddam could momentarily step down to appease Iran, and after peace had been negotiated, return to power. Saddam asked if anyone else in the cabinet agreed with the proposal, and when no hands were raised, he escorted the man into the next room and shot him in the head with his pistol before resuming the meeting. The message was clear: it did not matter how bad things got — Saddam would never back down. He had reason to be confident in his army. Despite losing tens of thousands of soldiers so far, he still had an active force of more than 200,000 men and was receiving plenty of international aid. Countries supporting Iraq included the United States, which provided information from spy satellites after declaring that it could not, under any circumstances, let Iraq lose the war. France sold various helicopters and Mirage F-1 fighter jets, and the Soviet Union — displeased with Iran for destroying its local communist party — began selling tanks and spare parts to Iraq. Iran, by contrast, remained under strict economic sanctions and had to rely on importing ammunition and weapons from China, Pakistan, and North Korea. ## Operation Ramadan: A Criminal Failure Despite the economic disadvantage, Iran did hold one trump card — morale. Propaganda across the country depicted the war as a holy conflict, promising glory in martyrdom for Allah and bringing boys as young as 12 to sign up by the thousands to prove their allegiance. With so many soldiers at its disposal, Iran was ready to follow through on its promise to overthrow Saddam's regime. Initially, the plan was to launch an all-out attack on Baghdad, but Iranian leadership rejected the idea as too risky. Instead, they decided it would be more effective to capture smaller provinces, push slowly through the country, and hopefully turn the population against Saddam. On July 13th, 1982, Iran's offensive began, codenamed Operation Ramadan. More than 100,000 Iranian troops charged forward in huge waves, throwing themselves at the weak points in Iraqi defenses. But Iraq was ready for the waves this time, having entrenched artillery and tanks to counter the human floods, and Iran suffered unimaginable losses in the first days of fighting. Iraq also deployed large amounts of tear gas, sending entire battalions into disarray as they choked on the fumes, making them easy targets for artillery and helicopter strikes. But Iran had plenty of men to spare, and those who fell were quickly replaced. After three days, they had pushed 16 kilometers deep into Iraqi territory before Iraqi air strikes forced them back near the border. A few days later, they pushed 13 kilometers in and were driven back once again, this time on the verge of total annihilation, narrowly escaping encirclement. A couple of weeks later, they attacked for a final, desperate time, capturing a small amount of Iraqi land before the fighting died down. Operation Ramadan lasted only a few weeks, but it produced more than 20,000 deaths, 80,000 wounded, and thousands of destroyed vehicles — all to occupy just 50 square kilometers of Iraqi territory. As one historian put it, the operation was "by any standard, a criminal failure of leadership and strategy." Iran had gained essentially nothing of strategic value, save for destroying a good number of Iraqi tanks, but at a price far too high. ## The Marshes and the War of Attrition Following the failed offensive, the war shifted back to one of attrition, as both sides continued to launch attacks across the vast frontline to no avail. Iran's human wave tactics were even used to clear minefields, which, as one can imagine, resulted in unbelievable loss of life. Throughout 1983 and 1984, Iran launched 10 separate Operation Dawns, most of which achieved very little, except Operation Dawn 4, which retook some territory in the north. Over these months, Iran began shying away from human wave tactics and started trying new approaches, such as the marsh battles, where forces would engage Iraqi troops while wading through thick water and mud, often at night. It was hoped that these wetlands would offer a favorable way to sneak through the Iraqi defenses. But as Iranian forces advanced through the wet terrain, they encountered mustard gas, underwater electrical wires, and poisoned water. The marshes quickly became one of the deadliest places in the war — a near-certain death sentence for any soldier assigned there. ## The Tanker War In 1984, Syria — which was on Iran's side throughout the conflict — closed a crucial pipeline that killed off Iran's oil exports. Losing those exports was catastrophic for the country's economy, which was now hemorrhaging billions of dollars every month. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait stepped in to provide economic assistance, but the situation had given Saddam a new idea. If he began attacking Iranian merchant ships, he might provoke Iran into closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil tankers that provides the only route from the Persian Gulf to open sea. If that strait closed, foreign superpowers would almost certainly intervene, and the war could be ended in no time at all. So, in 1984, Iraq began targeting Iranian ships, civilian and military alike. Generally using helicopters and attack planes purchased from France, dozens of Iranian ships were struck, set ablaze, and even sunk over the following year. Iran responded with similar attacks, and in what became known as the Tanker War, ships from all nations were targeted. Just as Saddam had hoped, the world's eyes turned to the region's oil supplies, and several Western nations deployed warships to protect their commerce. The United States, under President Ronald Reagan, went above and beyond the rest, allowing friendly tankers to be reflagged with the American stars and stripes, granting them the protection of the US Navy. It was an extremely risky decision, courting the total involvement of the United States, but even the presence of powerful navies was not enough to stop the attacks. The closest the US came to direct involvement was when the USS Stark was targeted by an Iraqi jet, which fired two missiles at the vessel, striking its port side. The second missile penetrated the hull and exploded in the crew quarters, killing 37 and injuring 21. It was never determined whether the attack was intentional, and the pilot went unpunished back in Iraq. Saudi Arabia was also nearly pulled into the conflict when it scrambled two F-15 fighters to protect one of its shipping vessels and ended up shooting down two Iranian F-4s. ## The War of the Cities While the Tanker War raged at sea, Iraq had finally begun to dominate the skies over Iran. The lack of spare parts and engineers was taking its toll, and as the war progressed, Iran could no longer seriously compete for air superiority. Saddam ordered the so-called "war of the cities" to begin, in which huge squadrons embarked on bombing runs across Iranian cities. These included some of the largest-scale bombing missions since the end of the Second World War, and civilian deaths skyrocketed into the tens of thousands across 11 major cities. Iraq also began importing Soviet-made Scud missiles and launched them at civilian targets wherever it pleased. Iran responded with its own bombing runs, specifically targeting Baghdad. Iraq's use of mustard bombs also increased as it imported more of the necessary chemicals. In one attack on the city of Sardasht, more than 100 civilians were killed and 5,000 were burned and injured by the toxic substance. ## The Final Months Throughout 1986 and 1987, while each side continued various attacks along the frontline, Saddam sent multiple offers for a ceasefire. Iran rejected all of them, determined to win the war. Both sides were enacting policies of total war, and Iraq had even started drafting university students. But the attitude really began to change in 1988, when Iraq stepped up its terror attacks. Fueled by massive weapons imports, Iraq's army had nearly doubled in size over the previous couple of years, and since it was now spending more than 50 percent of its entire GDP on the war, its military industry was booming — especially missile production. More than 500 missiles in total were fired at Iranian cities, and Iran struggled to respond. Saddam then threatened to begin arming the long-range missiles with chemical weapons, causing 30 percent of Tehran's population to flee the city immediately. The Supreme Leader of Iran, now facing the prospect of weapons of mass destruction and a second Iraqi invasion stronger than the first, accepted UN Resolution 598 and began working toward a ceasefire. It was signed in August 1988, ending all hostilities between the two countries. ## The Ghost Left Behind The Iran-Iraq War had resulted in almost no territorial changes whatsoever, with both sides returning to their pre-war boundaries. It had, however, decimated hundreds of cities, and the total number of casualties is somewhere in the ballpark of 2,000,000 people — more than half of which came from the vicious combat on the frontlines. Both nations were severely in debt after the war ended. While Iran would slowly work on rebuilding, it was this debt, combined with a newly strengthened army, that would lead Iraq to make another terrible decision: the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. This time, however, Iraq would be no match for the coalition forces it faced. Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran was met at the time with international scorn. But the condemnation did not end there. The experience of the Iran-Iraq War added serious credibility to later accusations that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century — accusations that ultimately led the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. In the end, Saddam's invasion of Iran in 1980 had not only sparked one of the deadliest wars in recent history, but perhaps set off a domino effect that ended with his regime destroyed and with him executed by his own people. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why did Saddam Hussein invade Iran in 1980? The 1979 revolution had thrown Iran into chaos and gutted its military, presenting what appeared to be an easy opportunity. Saddam could justify the attack as stopping the spread of the Islamic revolution's ideology into Iraq, and he hoped a quick defeat would collapse Iran's fragile new government entirely. Analysts also suspected the real motive was to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan province, where four of Iraq's six invading divisions were concentrated. ### How had Iran's once-powerful military become so vulnerable before the invasion? Through the 1970s, Iran was rated among the fifth or sixth most powerful armed forces on Earth, armed with advanced US aircraft including the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat. The 1979 revolution drove out trained pilots and engineers, and Khomeini's subsequent purge removed more than 12,000 officers, leaving sophisticated foreign equipment in the hands of understaffed and undertrained teams. The result was that Iran's once-formidable army was on the verge of collapse precisely when Saddam chose to strike. ### What were Iran's human wave tactics, and what did they achieve? Huge crowds of lightly armed Iranian soldiers would flood a weak point in Iraqi trenches, overpowering defenders by sheer numbers despite massive casualties, and were then followed by mechanized reinforcements. The tactic broke through several Iraqi defensive lines but at staggering human cost — Operation Ramadan alone produced more than 20,000 deaths and 80,000 wounded to gain just 50 square kilometers of Iraqi territory. Iran even used human waves to clear minefields. ### What was the Tanker War, and how did it draw in the United States? Beginning in 1984, Iraq began attacking Iranian merchant and military ships, hoping to provoke Iran into closing the Strait of Hormuz and forcing superpower intervention to end the conflict. Iran retaliated, targeting ships from all nations. The United States under President Reagan reflagged friendly tankers with the American flag and deployed the US Navy to protect them; the USS Stark was subsequently struck by two Iraqi missiles, killing 37 and injuring 21. ### How did the war end, and what were its long-term consequences? Iran's Supreme Leader accepted UN Resolution 598 after Iraqi missile barrages and threats to arm long-range missiles with chemical weapons drove 30 percent of Tehran's population from the city. A ceasefire was signed in August 1988, ending the war with no territorial changes and around two million total casualties. Iraq emerged deeply in debt, a financial strain that contributed directly to Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait — and Iraq's documented use of chemical weapons during the war later lent credibility to accusations that led to the 2003 US invasion. <!-- youtube:bZjJpH34G1g -->