Word: iranian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...this code signal was broadcast over walkie-talkie radios early last week, some 65,000 Iranian troops and militia launched the most ambitious counterattack of the 20-month border war between Iran and Iraq. The prize: the Iranian port of Khorramshahr, which the Iraqis had captured soon after crossing to the Iranian side of the Shatt al Arab at the start...
...predawn Iranian attack routed the Iraqi forces with an ease that surprised even the Iranian commanders. By noon, two Iraqi divisions and two border guard brigades had been surrounded and almost entirely taken prisoner; the rest of the Iraqi force of about 12,000 men was fleeing. Said an Iranian captain afterward: "Some were so frightened that they threw themselves into the shaft and struck out for the Iraqi shore. I saw a few drown. They could not swim, and their comrades, desperate to save themselves, let them go down...
...wars-one active, the other sporadic and threatening-preoccupied the Middle East last week. On the Persian Gulf, Iran appeared to be gaining a crucial edge in its 19-month-long war with Iraq. A fierce battle raged for control of Khorramshahr, the strategic Iranian port city captured by Iraq shortly after the fighting began in September 1980. Some 800 miles to the west, Israeli fighter-bombers attacked a cluster of Palestine Liberation Organization strongholds in central and southern Lebanon, and the P.L.O. responded by sending volleys of artillery into northern Israel. In Jerusalem, one government leader after another declared...
...current Iranian offensive began on April 30, when Tehran's forces established a bridgehead west of the Karun River in Khuzistan province. Although the Iranians have successfully regained a large share of their lost territory since the beginning of the year (see map), they encountered strong Iraqi resistance last week. One reason is that the Iraqis this time have relied heavily on their air force, carrying out persistent strikes against the Iranians. Some diplomats believe that the unexpected strength shown by the Iraqi air force results from the presence of an estimated 60 Egyptian pilots now said...
...estimate that as many as 40,000 soldiers of the two countries have been killed. The conflict has realigned some of the powers in the region. In a rare convergence of interests, Libya, Syria and Israel are aiding Iran with arms. Saudi Arabia and the gulf states, which fear Iranian efforts to foment revolution among their dissident minorities, staunchly support Iraq, and have poured $25 billion into the war effort. Egypt has sent 60 pilots to aid the Iraqi air force, and Iran said last week that 400 Egyptian troops were fighting alongside Iraqi forces. The assistance was supposedly intended...