Word: baghdad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Iraqi air force continued its campaign of aerial warfare against civilian areas, bombing at least 20 Iranian cities and towns in day and night raids. Iraq also declared Iranian airspace a "war exclusion zone" and warned international airlines against serving Tehran; some carriers responded by canceling flights to both Baghdad and Tehran. Foreign residents in Tehran, eager to leave after a series of Iraqi air attacks on the capital's northern areas, mobbed airline offices in an effort to secure passage out of the country. At the same time, the "tanker war" in the Persian Gulf went on unabated...
Because the Iranian air force has only a few frontline aircraft left, Tehran's response to the Iraqi air war has been mild. Tehran threatened to attack Baghdad airport and close the airspace over the gulf, but so far it has done neither. Iran did continue its shelling of Iraqi cities with heavy artillery, however, and last week two large explosions shook Baghdad, killing at least 20 people. Iraqi officials believe that of four major blasts in Baghdad over the past two weeks, two or three were triggered by terrorist bombs; the fourth was apparently caused by an Iranian surface...
After last week's victory, Saddam was cheered by a four-hour visit from two of his supporters, Jordan's King Hussein and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. The two had been conferring in the Jordanian capital of Amman and decided, without advance notice, to fly to Baghdad for consultations. One of Mubarak's key objectives was to persuade Saddam to renew diplomatic relations with Egypt, which were severed in 1977 at a time when Egypt was making peace overtures toward Israel. He was not quite ready to take that step at the moment, Saddam told his visitors; what really...
...working to thaw the "cold peace" with Israel by exchanging emissaries with Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Mubarak later flew to Washington to make a personal plea to President Reagan for renewed U.S. involvement. Then, last week, the globe-trotting Egyptian leader joined King Hussein on a trip to Baghdad to enlist the support of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Not since Reagan took office have Arab leaders displayed such an aggressive effort to revive the dormant peace process and, most important, to get the U.S. back into the diplomatic game...
...hard-line stand against negotiations with Israel, Iraq appears to be changing its tune. Iraq's President wants his country to be in the mainstream of the Arab world and not to be linked with the likes of Libya and Syria. "In the past," says a Western ambassador in Baghdad, "one could expect Iraq to have its own agenda. Any compromise with Israel was unacceptable. Now, Iraq will not stand...