Word: basra
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...though in revenge for the Iraqi bombing of Kharg Island, Iran's main outlet for oil, the week before, the Iranians also launched repeated bombing raids against the refineries of Basra, the pumping stations around Kirkuk and Mosul, and the oil port of Fao at the mouth of Shatt al Arab. Tehran even sent a few of its sophisticated U.S.-made F-14s into the war; they were flown sparingly, but according to Iranian reports their Phoenix air-to-air missiles succeeded in downing more than a dozen Iraqi...
...also a fact that food and fuel supplies were running short in some Iraqi cities. The nightly blackouts made a flashlight a precious commodity. Baghdad experienced repeated power failures as a result of the Iranian bombings. Said a doctor in Basra: "Last week our lives were not too affected, and most people thought of this as a just and honorable war that was even kind of exhilarating. Now we are starting to find out about the hard times it can bring...
...than a week, an apparently unstoppable Iraqi advance had, in fact, been halted and transformed into a stalemate in which the Iranians were more than holding their own. Before the ban, TIME Correspondent William Drozdiak was able to catch the change in the war firsthand in repeated visits to Basra, and near Khorramshahr in occupied Iran. His report...
...revved up, Tehran declared an embargo on Iraqi harbors and oil facilities like Basra and proclaimed Iranian territorial waters a "war zone." Ships passing through Hormuz were advised by Iranian navy craft to avoid Iraqi ports. While for the most part the traffic-and the oil-kept flowing, some supertanker captains hove to. Off Kuwait, a fleet of the giant ships dropped anchor, waiting...
Seldom has a war over such relatively simple issues for those waging it had so many dangerous, unpredictable and complex ramifications. A large match was lit last week in a very flammable part of the globe. The uncontrolled fires that now darken the skies over the refineries of Basra and Abadan are apt symbols for the gulf...