Word: iraqi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...region. Two months ago, thousands of Iranian troops stormed across the Shatt al Arab, the long-disputed waterway that lies between the two countries, and established a toehold in Iraq's Fao Peninsula, a desolate strip of land that juts into the Persian Gulf. Despite superior firepower, Iraqi forces have been unable to dislodge the Iranians. The Fao beachhead was established just as falling oil prices threatened to starve both Iran's and Iraq's military and civilian economies. The protracted battle for Fao could prove to be a critical turning point in the war. TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand traveled...
...logic prevailed, Fao would be awarded not to the winner but to the loser of the struggle for this wet, muddy wasteland. Heavy trucks carrying Iraqi soldiers and supplies to the front rumble over roads running along levees, above the marshy terrain approaching Fao. The Iranians, using flat-bottomed boats with powerful outboard engines, roar across the blue-green waters of the gulf to deliver ammunition and reinforcements, who bring the latest , exhortations of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini...
...that is well suited for Iranian defenses. Iraq's Soviet-made tanks are unable to advance along the narrow roads and soft levees leading to the town. When tanks do get into position, they are badly exposed and easily crippled by fire from Iranian rocket- propelled grenades. Should the Iraqis succeed in driving the Iranians out of the salt evaporator, notes a Western military observer, "they will have to fight in the ruins of Fao." Once an Iraqi oil-exporting terminal in the gulf, the town is now a collection of bombed-out buildings that serve as perfect cover...
...times, the war appears to be waged with hydraulics rather than firepower. The Iranians flood the low areas to bog down Iraqi tanks and heavy equipment. The Iraqis use earthmoving vehicles and hundreds of dump trucks to fill in the soggy earth. Despite sustained Iraqi artillery barrages, the Iranians have been aided by heavy rains, which have made it impossible for the Iraqi air force to home in on their positions...
Until the assault on Fao, the Iraqis seemed to be in control of the military situation. Says one Western ambassador: "We used to ask how long the Iraqis could sustain such costly victories. Now we 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...