Iran–Iraq War
- Period
- September 1980 – August 1988
- Sides
- Iraq vs Iran
- Battles
- 23
The Iran–Iraq War, also called the First Imposed War, Eight-Year War, or Sacred Defense by Iran, began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980. After eight years of conflict, both countries accepted a ceasefire deal brokered by the United Nations, which became effective in August 1988. The war caused around 500,000 deaths, making it the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.
Sources: Wikipedia — Iran–Iraq War · CC BY-SA 4.0
Battles 23
September 1980 – November 1980
Battle of Khorramshahr (1980)
The First Battle of Khorramshahr was a major battle in the Iran–Iraq War, beginning shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980. Amidst the gruelling urban warfare in and around the city, Khorramshahr came to be referred to by the Iranians as Khuninshahr, as both sides had suffered heavy casualties in combat. It was the single largest urban battle of the Iran–Iraq war.
September 1980
Operation Scorch Sword
Operation Scorch Sword was an Iranian airstrike on Iraq's Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Centre in 1980. Conducted eight days after the beginning of the Iraqi invasion of Iran, it was a surprise attack against the under-construction Osirak nuclear reactor, which was located 17 kilometres to the southeast of Baghdad and was widely perceived as a major asset for the then-ongoing Iraqi nuclear program. At dawn on 30 September, four Iranian F-4 Phantom IIs completed an aerial refueling near the Iran–Iraq border before flying into Iraqi airspace, where they deliberately climbed to a high altitude in order to be detected by Iraqi radar systems, albeit on a false course. Moments later, two of them peeled off and dropped to an extremely low altitude to avoid further detection and subsequently changed course for the Iraqi nuclear facility.
October 1980
Operation Dezful
Operation Dezful was fought in early stage of the Iran–Iraq War on 15 October 1980 as Iranian tank brigades from the 16th Qazvin, 77th Khorasan, and 92nd Khuzestan armoured divisions attacked Iraqi positions. The Iranian Army's aim was to stop Iraqis progress in Iranian territories and to push them back. However, Iraqi forces counterattacked from the flanks, and repulsed the Iranian forces. The Iranian failure was blamed on poor decision making, the purge of army commanders due to their participation in Nojeh coup plot, and underestimating fire power of Iraqi forces and they were forced to retreat to the eastern shores of Dez River west of Dezful.
November 1980 – September 1981
Siege of Abadan
The siege of Abadan was the encirclement of the city by Iraqi forces beginning in November 1980. The city had already been under almost daily bombardment since the early days of the war, which began the previous September.
November 1980
Operation Morvarid
Operation Morvarid was an operation launched by the Iranian Navy and Air Force against the Iraqi Navy sites on 27 November 1980 in response to Iraq positioning radar and monitoring equipment on the Mina Al-Bakr and Khor-al-Amaya oil rigs to counter Iranian air operations. The operation resulted in a victory for Iran, which managed to destroy both oil rigs as well as much of the Iraqi Navy and inflicted significant damage to Iraqi ports and airfields.
January 1981
Operation Nasr
Operation Nasr, also known as Operation Hoveyzeh, was a major battle in the Iran–Iraq War fought in early January 1981. It was the biggest tank battle of the war.
December 1981
Operation Tariq al-Quds
The Liberation of Bostan, that codenamed Operation Tariq al-Quds was a military operation launched by Iran during the Iran–Iraq War to free Bostan in the Khuzestan province. It was fought from 29 November to 7 December 1981 and was carried out jointly by the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
March 1982
Operation Fath ol-Mobin
Operation Fath-ol-Mobin was a major Iranian military operation conducted during the Iran–Iraq War, in March 1982 and resulted to the Battle of Shush. The operation was led by Lt. General Ali Sayad Shirazi and was conducted in four phases.
April 1982 – May 1982
Battle of Khorramshahr (1982)
The Second Battle of Khorramshahr, also known in Iran as the Liberation of Khorramshahr was the Iranian recapture of the city of Khorramshahr on 24 May 1982, during the Iran–Iraq War. The city had been captured by the Iraqis earlier in the war, on 26 October 1980, shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Iran. The successful retaking of the city was part of Iran's Operation Beit ol-Moqaddas. It is perceived as a turning point in the war; and the liberation of the city is annually celebrated in Iran on 24 May.
July 1982 – August 1982
Operation Ramadan
Operation Ramadan was an Iranian offensive in the Iran–Iraq War that consisted of three separate attacks that lasted for 6 weeks. It was launched by Iran on 13 July 1982 near Basra and featured the use of human wave attacks in the largest land battle since World War II. The engagement was a part of the overall stalemate.
February 1984
Battle of the Marshes
The Battle of the Marshes was a part of the Iran–Iraq War.
March 1985
Operation Badr (1985)
Operation Badr was an Iranian operation conducted during the Iran–Iraq War against the forces of Ba'athist Iraq. The Iranians launched their offensive on March 10 and succeeded in capturing a part of the Basra-Amarah-Baghdad highway. The following Iraqi counterattack, however, forced the Iranians out in a continual war of endless stalemate.
February 1986 – September 1988
Anfal campaign
The Anfal campaign, was a counterinsurgency operation, described by many scholars and human rights groups as a genocide or ethnic cleansing, which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel groups and Arabize strategic parts of the Kirkuk Governorate. The Ba'athist regime committed atrocities on the local Kurdish population, mostly civilians. While the primary targets were Kurds, other minorities in the north such as Assyrians and Turkmen also fell victim to the Anfal campaign.
February 1986
First Battle of al-Faw
The First Battle of al-Faw was a battle of the Iran–Iraq War, fought on the al-Faw peninsula between 10 February and 10 March 1986. The Iranian operation is considered to be one of Iran's greatest achievements in the Iran–Iraq War. The Iranians were able to capture the al-Faw peninsula, cutting off Iraqi access to the Persian Gulf in the process; this in turn hardened Iraqi attitudes to prosecute the war. The Faw peninsula was later recaptured by Iraqi forces near the end of the war.
December 1986
Operation Karbala-4
Operation Karbala-4 was an Iranian offensive in the Iran–Iraq War on the southern front. The operation was launched after the failure of Operation Karbala-2 and Operation Karbala-3 to move the Iraqi lines in an effort to capture Iraqi territory.
January 1987
Chemical attack on Behbahan battalion
On 9 January 1987, at the beginning of the Battle of Shalamcheh, in the midst of the Iran–Iraq War, the Iranian Behbehan Battalion came under a heavy aerial chemical bomb attack by Iraqi forces. The Behbahan Battalion was positioned near Shalamcheh, in the south of Iran, about 10 km from the port of Khorramshahr.
February 1987
Siege of Basra
The siege of Basra, code-named Operation Karbala-5 or The Great Harvest, was an offensive operation carried out by Iran in an effort to capture the Iraqi port city of Basra in early 1987. This battle, known for its extensive casualties and ferocious conditions, was the biggest battle of the war and proved to be the last major Iranian offensive. The Iranians failed to reach their objective.
May 1987
USS Stark incident
The USS Stark incident occurred during the Iran–Iraq War in the Persian Gulf on 17 May 1987, when an Iraqi jet aircraft fired two Exocet missiles at the U.S. frigate USS Stark. A total of 37 United States Navy personnel were killed or later died as a result of the attack, and 21 were injured. Iraq apologized, and Saddam Hussein said that the pilot mistook the frigate for an Iranian tanker.
July 1987
Bridgeton incident
The Bridgeton incident was the mining of the supertanker SS Bridgeton by the Iranian IRGC navy near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf on July 24, 1987. The ship was sailing in the first convoy of Operation Earnest Will, the U.S. response to Kuwaiti requests to protect its tankers from attack amid the Iran–Iraq War.
March 1988
Halabja massacre
The Halabja massacre took place in Iraqi Kurdistan on 16 March 1988, when thousands of Kurds were killed by a large-scale Iraqi chemical attack. A targeted attack in Halabja, it was carried out during the Anfal campaign, which was led by Iraqi military officer Ali Hassan al-Majid. Two days before the attack, the city had been captured by Iran as part of Operation Zafar 7 of the Iran–Iraq War. Following the incident, the United Nations launched an investigation and concluded that mustard gas as well as unidentified nerve agents had been used against Kurdish civilians. The BBC later reported that a mixture of mustard, tabun, sarin, and VX, was used. The United States Defense Intelligence Agency initially blamed Iran for the attack, though the majority of evidence later revealed that Iraq had used the chemical weapons to bolster an ongoing military offensive against Iran, pro-Iranian Kurdish fighters, and ordinary Halabja residents.
April 1988
Operation Praying Mantis
Operation Praying Mantis was the 18 April 1988 attack by the United States on Iranian naval targets in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for the mining of a U.S. warship four days earlier. It took place during the US presidency of Ronald Reagan and the rule of Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini.
April 1988
Second Battle of al-Faw
The Second Battle of al-Faw (also known as the Operation Ramadan Mubarak (Blessed Ramadan), fought on 17 April 1988, was a major battle of the Iran–Iraq War. After their defeat at the First Battle of al-Faw two years earlier, the newly restructured Iraqi Army conducted a major operation to clear the Iranians out of the peninsula.
July 1988
Operation Mersad
Operation Mersad was the Iranian counteroffensive against the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK)'s July 1988 incursion into western Iran, which the MEK code-named Operation Forough Javidan. These operations were among the last major military actions of the Iran–Iraq War.
Earlier and later events nearby
- c. AD 830House of Wisdom
- 1258Siege of Baghdad
- 1639Treaty of Zuhab
- September 1980 – August 1988Iran–Iraq WarThis page
- 1990–1991Gulf War
- 2003–2011Iraq War
Who ruled this land
States that held this place in the historical borders data (Cliopatria). Years are approximate, as fine as the data's snapshots (every few years to a century). Tap to open the map for that year.
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- 3200–2400 BCSumer
- 2300–2200 BCAkkadian Empire
- 2100 BCGutian dynasty of Sumer
- 2000–1800 BCSumer
- 1700–1600 BCAssyrian Empire
- 1500–1400 BCBabylonia
- 1300–1100 BCAssyrian Empire
- 1000–950 BCBabylonia
- 900–700 BCNeo-Assyrian Empire
- 650 BCAssyrian Egypt
- 600–550 BCNeo-Babylonian Empire
- 500–350 BCAchaemenid Empire
- 300–150 BCSeleucid Empire
- 100 BC – AD 100Parthian Empire
- AD 125Roman Empire
- AD 150Parthian Empire
- AD 175–200Roman Empire
- AD 225Parthian Empire
- AD 250–625Sasanian Empire
- AD 650Rashidun Caliphate
- AD 675–750Umayyad Caliphate
- AD 775–950Abbasid Caliphate
- AD 975–1040Buyid dynasty
- 1060–1200Seljuk Empire
- 1220–1240Abbasid Caliphate
- 1260–1280Mongol Empire
- 1300–1340Ilkhanate
- 1360–1400Jalayirid Sultanate
- 1420Arab Iraq
- 1440–1510Aq Qoyunlu
- 1520–1530Safavid dynasty
- 1540–1620Ottoman Empire
- 1630Safavid dynasty
- 1640–1916Ottoman Empire
- 1918–1920British Empire
- 1922–1930British Africa
- 1932–1942Kingdom of Iraq
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