Word: iraqis
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...attention of the Iranian leadership was focused last week on the war with Iraq and the so-called final offensive that Iran has vowed to launch before the end of March. Two weeks ago Iranian forces attacked four Iraqi-held islands in the Shatt al Arab, the waterway that separates the southern parts of the two countries. The Iranians briefly captured the islands, but were forced to retreat after Iraq counterattacked with helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, missiles and rockets. Visiting the battlefield later, journalists saw the bodies of hundreds of Iranian soldiers on the ground or in the swampy waters...
...battle in the sky. It was unbelievable." So said Jordanian Businessman Salim Dado after surviving a terrifying ordeal aboard an Iraqi jetliner on Christmas Day. According to officials in Saudi Arabia, where the plane subsequently crashed, 62 of the 107 passengers and crew members on the stricken craft were not so lucky: they died in the crash, and about 20 others were injured, in one of the worst hijacking disasters on record...
...Jordanian capital of Amman. Passengers were just finishing a chicken lunch when a man suddenly ran through the cabin toward the cockpit, wildly shouting "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" A plainclothes security officer yelled, "Stop that!," but the battle between as many as four hijackers and half a dozen Iraqi security men had already begun. According to Passenger Dado, the first terrorist then lobbed a grenade into the rear cabin and another into the cockpit, wounding the pilot and co-pilot. Despite the damage to the aircraft, the injured pilot managed to keep it on course for 17 minutes, until...
...hijacking came only hours after a burst of renewed fighting in the gulf war. Early last week the Iraqis staged heavy air raids on Iranian industrial centers and troop concentrations in the hope of heading off Tehran's long- awaited "final offensive," for which the Iranians have amassed an estimated 650,000 troops along the 730-mile front. According to Iraq, Iranian forces launched a Christmas Eve assault aimed at capturing the southern Iraqi city of Basra but were repulsed by Iraqi troops after suffering huge losses. The Iranians, on the other hand, claimed they had merely been trying...
...fact, the latest attack appeared to be neither a serious defeat for the Iranians nor the first round in Tehran's long-threatened offensive, which is expected to begin sometime before March. Rather it seemed to have been an Iranian effort to test Iraqi defenses along the southern front. Nonetheless, the recent Iraqi aerial bombardment may be causing morale problems within Iran. The Khomeini government cannot afford a serious setback on the battlefield, but neither can it afford a widespread civilian reaction against the stalemated...