Word: basra
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...military front, Khomeini's forces remain fiercely motivated after two crucial victories this year against the troops of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Iran recently launched a new drive to create 1,000 new battalions of Revolutionary Guards. Many experts say Khomeini is preparing an all-out assault against Basra, Iraq's second largest city, in an effort to break the deadlock in the war. Says a senior international-relief official who has worked on both sides of the marshy trenches: "The Iranians are certainly beginning to act as if victory is now within reach...
...Washington some observers believe the heralded Iranian attack on Basra could turn out to be a false alarm. "Every year we hear the same thing -- now | comes the final offensive," says Thomas McNaugher, a Persian Gulf watcher at the Brookings Institution, "and every year it peters out." Nonetheless, the prospect, however faint, that Iran could begin to extend its control deeper into Iraq and then through the gulf is too serious to be ignored. Windows in Kuwait already rattle from Iranian artillery bombardments just 15 miles away. Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states are growing increasingly nervous. "Complacency...
Some experts fear that Iran may redouble its air attacks against tankers leaving ports in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, two of Iraq's chief financial backers. Iran could also launch its long-awaited offensive along the central battlefront between Baghdad and Basra, where Tehran claims to have 650,000 men. Whatever the response, the Sirri raid has only increased the ferocity of a seemingly endless...
...wonder how long they can sustain such costly defeats." Nonetheless, the Iraqi command seems to have regained its composure since the first weeks of the Iranian onslaught. They are well prepared for a long-predicted Iranian offensive through the Hawazia marshes that flank the highway north of Basra, which is just 50 miles from Fao. Defensive earthworks have been built along the road, with machine-gun nests and tank positions placed every 500 yards. The Iraqi brass is determined not to be diverted from retaking the Fao Peninsula. Declares Defense Minister General Adnan Khairallah, brother-in-law of President Saddam...
...Iraqis might have moved more rapidly if they were not concerned that the Iranian bridgehead at Fao was a feint to draw off troops from Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Across the nearby border, Iran has amassed 200,000 soldiers. To have the city cut off would be a stunning and perhaps fatal blow to the Baghdad government. As the battle at Fao raged, Iraqi fighters shot down an Iranian plane on a flight from Tehran to Ahvaz. All 46 aboard, including eight members of Iran's parliament, perished...