Word: basra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...1/2-year Iran-Iraq war has turned into one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century. Some 40,000 soldiers have been killed around the southern Iraqi city of Basra just since January. The entire death toll for the war is estimated at more than 1 million. Last week a United Nations inspection team accused Iraq of using chemical weapons against Iranian troops and civilians. Meanwhile, with the help of local Kurdish tribesmen, Iran's forces have established a new offensive in the northern part of Iraq, where the Iranians claim to have captured 185 sq. mi. of territory. Correspondent...
Beneath the onslaught, the city's piers lie idle. A major shipping center in calmer days, the port of Basra is now filled with stranded and rusting vessels. In the middle of the Shatt al Arab, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, two cargo ships lie half submerged, the apparent victims of random shells...
Farther from the Iranian rocket launchers, a limited sense of normality remains. A few shops are open, and people walk the mostly empty streets. In & the broken landscape of Basra, however, things may not be what they seem. Standing before a bungalow that she called home, Nazha Shouket Buny, 37, described herself as the only resident of her area who had not fled. "Basra is my city," said Buny, who was smartly dressed in a white sweater and brown skirt. "I am going to stay here." Yet her devotion to a district that lacked food, water and electricity seemed suspect...
Signs of battle scar the road from Basra to Baghdad as well. A dozen immobilized Iraqi tanks rest beside the highway, some with gaping holes in their armor, others mere burned-out hulks. The ruined tanks are a powerful reminder of U.S. arms sales to Iran. Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz attributes his country's equipment losses largely to American shipments of TOW antitank and Hawk antiaircraft missiles to Tehran...
...political signal that their shipment sent. Says he: "The Iranians must have drawn a conclusion that the Americans are not opposed to the installation of an Islamic puppet government in southern Iraq." Baghdad fears that Tehran wants nothing less than to establish just such a republic, with Basra as its capital. In the shadow of that threat, the desperate and desolate city fights for its life...