Word: basra
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...timing of the assault was hardly unexpected. For the past two years the Iranian army has launched a major rainy-season offensive across the marshlands of Al Huwaiza, north of the Iraqi city of Basra on the Shatt al Arab waterway. This year, on the anniversary of the day the Ayatullah Khomeini took power in 1979, the Iranians struck again. In the past, superior Iraqi armor and air power have repulsed waves of often youthful Iranian invaders. This time Iranian troops undertook a surprise offensive farther south, enabling Iran to claim at least a momentary psychological victory...
...moving troops across the broad waterway, the Iranians were able to seize Fao, a deserted oil port badly damaged early in the war, and Umm al Rassas, an island about 40 miles from Basra. Iraq conceded that Iranian forces had established "a shaky foothold" in its territory but warned that the venture "faced a gloomy fate." At week's end the ultimate success of the Iranian assault was uncertain. But it was clear that whatever the outcome, the price would be high. Thus far the battle has claimed thousands of casualties on both sides...
...which had been expected for months, was remarkably successful in its first two days. The assault troops crossed the marshes and set up positions on the banks of the Tigris; a few units even crossed the river on pontoon bridges to the vicinity of the highway between Baghdad and Basra, Iraq's second city. When the Iraqis eventually counterattacked with heavy concentrations of armor and artillery, the Iranians dug in and fought back. That they had put up a valiant struggle was demonstrated by the burned- out hulks of Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers littering the battlefield. The Iranian...
...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...
...long run, the war of attrition no longer favors Iran, as it seemed to do in the beginning. That is cold comfort for the citizens of Basra, who remain on the firing line and have learned to be skeptical of good news. For a few hours last week, they were cheered when Iran suspended the shelling following an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar to stop attacks on civilian targets. A day later the heavy guns began to rumble again...