Word: basra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...intensity not seen since last year's bloody land battles. This time the teeming capitals of the two countries, Tehran and Baghdad, were among the targets. Iraqi jets struck Tehran and at least a dozen other Iranian cities. While Iranian artillery zeroed in on the Iraqi port city of Basra and ground forces launched an offensive in the vast Huwaiza marshes of southern Iraq, aircraft raided Baghdad. When a huge explosion shattered part of the 13-story Baghdad headquarters of Iraq's Rafidain Bank, Tehran claimed that one of its surface- to-surface missiles had hit the building; the Iraqis...
...dead Iranian troops in the battle zone. Even so, the Iranians did not mount the human-wave assault the Iraqis had been expecting for months, possibly because the latest offensive had limited objectives: to strengthen Iranian positions in the marshlands and threaten Iraq's highway link between Baghdad and Basra...
...city at the center of the storm was Basra, a once busy and prosperous port (pop. 1.2 million in 1980) on the Shatt al Arab waterway formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. After Iraq's invasion in September 1980, Iranian artillery frequently shelled the city; ever since, Basra has been in a state of decay, its population reduced to 1 million, its trade cut to almost nothing. Two weeks ago, Iranian artillery attacks against the town resumed and doctors at the Basra city hospital once again were working around the clock. Remaining residents stayed indoors, barricading...
Neither Iran nor Iraq mentioned any new ground fighting north of Basra where the Iranians launched a major offensive March 11. Iraq reported Monday that the invasion was crushed and military communiques yesterday said Iranian casualties totaled 27,200 during the battle in the marshland...
...main objective of Iran is to crush the Kurdish rebels once and for all. But it, too, wants to use the Kurds to create a diversion for its primary foe. If Iran launches another major offensive, it will probably be in the south, near Basra. By attacking the Kurds along the northern border, the Iranians hope to make the Iraqis move some of their forces away from Basra...