Word: iraqi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...round of violence began when Iraqi aircraft launched sudden missile and rocket attacks on seven Iranian towns, killing, according to Iran, more than 100 people. Iraq then sent its aircraft on a bombing raid over Iran's $3.5 billion petrochemical complex at Bandar-Khomeini, on the northern tip of the Persian Gulf, and later claimed to have scored "successful and effective hits...
Iran retaliated by shelling six Iraqi border settlements and launching an air attack on the town of Baquba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. That, however, turned out to be only the prelude to an offensive by elements of an Iranian force of 300,000 troops massed near the border. After eleven hours of heavy fighting, the Iranians claimed to have broken through Iraqi lines 100 miles west of Baghdad. Iraq conceded that an attack had occurred but said that the Iranians had been "crushed" by a counteroffensive and were in retreat...
Western diplomats believe Iraq can carry out its threat. In October, the country received from France five highly sophisticated Super Etendard fighter-bombers, which can be equipped with lethal Exocet missiles. The Iraqis increased the pressure earlier this month with air strikes that, they claim, sank nine "enemy naval targets" in the gulf. In response, Iran has hardened its position. Only an end to the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iranian officials insist, will bring a settlement. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping if Iraq launches attacks on its oil facilities...
...tilted slightly in Iraq's favor. Still, says a senior State Department official, "we don't have a lot of leverage." The U.S. is providing Saddam Hussein with indirect economic assistance aimed at helping Iraq build new oil pipelines through Jordan and Saudi Arabia. With Iraqi ports closed to shipping because of the war, the country has been unable to keep oil exports up to the level necessary to finance the conflict...
THROUGHOUT the 35-year reign of the Shah, border conflicts between Iran and Iraq never escalated beyond short exchanges of gunfire. But in the fall of 1980, not a year after Khomeini returned to Iran. Iraqi president Saddam-Hossein launched a full-scale surprise attack into Iran. Today, almost half a million people have died and the two nations continue to wage...