Word: waterways
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meanwhile Iran and Iraq were slugging it out like determined but weary boxers, unable to land a knockout punch but also unwilling to call it quits. As it had for weeks, the struggle raged over control of the crucial Shatt al Arab waterway. After pummeling the ancient port city of Khorramshahr, the Iraqis laid siege to the Iranian refinery center of Abadan. The Iraqi advance was slowed by the fierce resistance of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, an Islamic militia passionately supportive of the ideals and fulminations of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Meanwhile, the surprisingly effective Iranian air force hit back...
Iraq also reported that 60 neutral ships trapped in the Shatt al-Arab waterway by the battle for Khorramshahr are now free to sail under the banner of the International Red Cross (IRC) into the Persian Gulf...
...objectives. Baghdad's battle plan apparently called for the seizure of key cities in Iran's oil-rich Khuzistan province, which has a large Arab minority. The cities would have been held for ransom against a settlement that would give Iraq control of the Shatt al Arab waterway, which it reluctantly agreed to share with the Shah of Iran in 1975. One of Baghdad's ultimate political goals is to overthrow the revolutionary government of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, who has urged Iraq's Shi'ite Muslims to oust Saddam Hussein...
...drawn into this bloody conflict between two angry neighbors. That nightmare is slipping toward reality. Iran and Iraq last week continued to savage each other with bombing, missile and artillery strikes, and there were brutal battles for control of the Iranian port of Khorramshahr on the Shatt al Arab waterway (see map). Meanwhile, other states of the Middle East were ominously choosing up sides. Items...
...journey began with a brief ferry trip across the Shatt waterway, then a hired taxi to Khorramshahr. Crossing a flat, dusty plain, laden with mud-camouflaged military vehicles, our party reached the Iraq-Iran border post of Shalamche. There, eight miles from Khorramshahr, dozens of 130mm artillery guns were hunkered down in a vast arc, pelting the Iranian-held port with booming shells...