Word: shatt
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...between Iraq and Iran raged into its seventh week, there were few signs that a decisive victory or a cease-fire would soon end the fighting. After seizing control of Khorramshahr on the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway, Iraqi troops mercilessly pounded the besieged refinery city of Abadan with artillery and tank fire. But fierce resistance by Iranian army troops, Revolutionary Guards and urban guerrillas halted the invaders at a key bridge over the Karun River, north of the embattled city. As the Iraqis shelled other major towns in oil-rich Khuzistan province, Iran struck back at enemy positions with...
...depriving Iran of most of its domestic fuel supply. The Iranian Oil Ministry imposed a drastic rationing of home heating oil, following earlier restrictions on gasoline. The fall of Khorramshahr gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein his first major victory. It also left the Iraqis in complete control of the Shatt al Arab and bolstered their military position as they continued assaults not only on Abadan but also on the other key Khuzistan cities of Ahwaz and Dezful. Iraq's First Deputy Prime Minister, Tana Yasin Ramadan, reportedly stated that Baghdad's objective was to take not only...
...attrition along the Shatt al Arab was overshadowed last week by the diplomatic efforts to end the fighting?and by political maneuvers to exploit it. Like the fighting, the diplomacy and the politics could have consequences for the entire Middle East and perhaps for the world. Throughout history, war has often resulted in the reordering of international relations, and it has often been true that the longer and bloodier the war, the more divisive the political aftermath...
Though a breakthrough continued to elude them, Iraqi forces were tightening a noose around the ports of Khorramshahr and Abadan on the bank of the Shatt al Arab waterway. Buttressed by batteries of 130-mm artillery, an estimated 9,000 Iraqi infantrymen, using three pontoon bridges, succeeded in crossing the Karun River. Their military command declared it "Iraq's largest amphibious assault ever." From that bridgehead Iraqi tanks fanned southward to surround both Khorramshahr and Abadan. The Iranians charged that the Iraqis bombarded both cities with artillery and with surface-to-surface missiles. Eyewitnesses said the carnage among civilians...
...century is trumpeted at every turn. Radio and television keep up a drumbeat of patriotic poems set to martial music. The propaganda has had some impact. Many Baghdadis feel that their country is not only waging a war against a traditional enemy that gained control of the Shatt al Arab waterway by exploiting Iraqi weakness, but spearheading a patriotic, nationalist cause for the entire Arab world...