Word: iraqis
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...highest echelons of Khomeini's command were further decimated last week when Defense Minister Mousa Namju, acting Staff Chief Valiollah Fallahi and two other ranking commanders were killed in the crash of a C-130 returning from the Iranian-Iraqi front. Although a spokesman for a group of former officers loyal to the Shah claimed to have sabotaged the plane, both the government and Mujahedin leaders believed the crash was most likely an accident. Only days earlier, Iran had claimed its "biggest victory" in the year-long border conflict when its forces broke the Iraqi siege of Abadan...
Ugly plumes of black smoke hung over the huge Iranian oil refinery in Abadan last week. Just two miles away, Iraqi artillery units kept firing shells into the besieged port at the head of the Persian Gulf. Iraqi MiG-23s swooped overhead in bombing raids, drawing intense antiaircraft fire. One MiG-23, spewing smoke, crashed near Basra, inside Iraq. Huddled behind sandbags or in the ravaged interiors of buildings, the Iranians are conducting an incessant artillery duel with the enemy. Although Iraq held a long strip of Iranian territory (see map), the situation was different toward the north, where Iranian...
Each side continues to claim victories, but neither has the power to win decisively. Preoccupied with its growing domestic difficulties, the government of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini has been unable to launch a major offensive, although its forces outnumber the Iraqis, 350,000 to 250,000. On the other hand, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein does not dare press the issue much further; resentment over any major increase in casualties could undermine his position at home...
...Arab world. In addition, he was infuriated by the repeated calls by Khomeini to his fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq, who form 55% of the country's population, to overthrow their President. Saddam was convinced that Iran, swept by revolution, would be unable to resist an Iraqi attack. But the war became one cause in which the multifarious factions of Iran could unite. Explains one Iranian officer: "The war is a black-and-white situation. You need not make any agonizing choices...
...fighting continues to take an enormous economic toll. Iraqi oil production has dropped to an estimated 900,000 bbl. per day, one-third of prewar levels, as Iranian jets have bombed storage and production sites. Iran is now pumping only about 1 million bbl., down from an average of 1.6 million bbl. per day just before...