Word: abadan
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Ugly plumes of black smoke hung over the huge Iranian oil refinery in Abadan last week. Just two miles away, Iraqi artillery units kept firing shells into the besieged port at the head of the Persian Gulf. Iraqi MiG-23s swooped overhead in bombing raids, drawing intense antiaircraft fire. One MiG-23, spewing smoke, crashed near Basra, inside Iraq. Huddled behind sandbags or in the ravaged interiors of buildings, the Iranians are conducting an incessant artillery duel with the enemy. Although Iraq held a long strip of Iranian territory (see map), the situation was different toward the north, where Iranian...
...Ruhollah Khomeini has eased his obdurate attitude on the hostage question. Moderate President Abolhassan Banisadr, who is in favor of the hostages' release, seems to be gaining in visibility because of his handling of the war with Iraq. Indeed, as the valiant defense of the refinery city of Abadan went into its ninth week, Banisadr's influence with the military continued to grow...
...refuge in Basra. On a tour of Khorramshahr last week, TIME Correspondent William Drozdiak found very few signs of life; emaciated dogs foraged for scraps in the rubble, swarthy Iraqi soldiers lounged in the shade as they listened to the echo of sporadic shelling in what was left of Abadan (pop. 300,000), seven miles away. Drozdiak's report...
...roof of an abandoned post office at the edge of the Karun River, Iraqi soldiers point to Iranian outposts a few hundred yards away. In the distance, thick plumes of smoke arise from the burning oil refinery at Abadan. An Iraqi private describes how the remaining Iranian defenders have split into three-and four-man sniper squads. Some of the squads have attempted "hit and run" mortar assaults from the south bank of the Karun. An Iraqi general predicts that Abadan could fall within a week, depending on the intransigence of the Iranian holdouts and the willingness of the Iraqis...
Tehran has not yet managed to launch a major counteroffensive, but Iranian ground troops have reportedly driven the Iraqis back at some points. Said a senior Iranian military officer: "As you go north from Abadan, our position steadily improves. From Ham all the way to Baveysi we have the initiative and the Iraqis have been regularly falling back." Iranian sources said last week that most of the 1 million residents of the Khuzistan cities under Iraqi attack had reportedly fled either to central Iran or to nearby mountain refuges. One farfetched rumor had it that if the Iraqis captured Ahwaz...