Powiązane dzieci przeciwko broni chemicznej,

13.05.03, 02:55
czyli wspomnienia z wojny Irak-Iran.
Bili się, bili pozabijalo się może pół miliona, może milion ludzi
a i tak nic się nie zmieniło...

Z duzymi skrotami: [...]

Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
The Iran-Iraq War permanently altered the course of Iraqi history. [...]
The Iran-Iraq War was multifaceted and included religious schisms, border
disputes, and political differences. Conflicts contributing to the outbreak
of hostilities ranged from centuries-old Sunni-versus-Shia and Arab-versus-
Persian religious and ethnic disputes, to a personal animosity between Saddam
Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini. Above all, Iraq launched the war in an effort
to consolidate its rising power in the Arab world and to replace Iran as the
dominant Persian Gulf state.

[...]Against Iran's armed forces, including the Pasdaran (Revolutionary
Guard) troops, led by religious mullahs with little or no military
experience, the Iraqis could muster twelve complete mechanized divisions,
equipped with the latest Soviet materiel. With the Iraqi military buildup in
the late 1970s, Saddam Hussein had assembled an army of 190,000 men,
augmented by 2,200 tanks and 450 aircraft.
[...]For Iraqi planners, the only uncertainty was the fighting ability of the
Iranian air force, equipped with some of the most sophisticated American-made
aircraft. Despite the execution of key air force commanders and pilots, the
Iranian air force had displayed its might during local riots and
demonstrations. [...]
Iraqi Offensives, 1980-82
[...]In April the Iranian-supported Ad Dawah attempted to assassinate Iraqi
foreign minister Tariq Aziz. [...]
In September 1980, border skirmishes erupted in the central sector near Qasr-
e Shirin, with an exchange of artillery fire by both sides. [...]
Baghdad originally planned a quick victory over Tehran. Saddam expected the
invasion of the in the Arabic-speaking, oil-rich area of Khuzistan to result
in an Arab uprising against Khomeini's fundamentalist Islamic regime. This
revolt did not materialize, however, and the Arab minority remained loyal to
Tehran.
On September 22, 1980, formations of Iraqi MiG-23s and MiG21s attacked Iran's
air bases at Mehrabad and Doshen-Tappen (both near Tehran), as well as
Tabriz, Bakhtaran, Ahvaz, Dezful, Urmia (sometimes cited as Urumiyeh),
Hamadan, Sanandaj, and Abadan. Their aim was to destroy the Iranian air force
on the ground--a lesson learned from the Arab-Israeli June 1967 War. [...]
Simultaneously, six Iraqi army divisions entered Iran on three fronts in an
initially successful surprise attack, where they drove as far as eight
kilometers inland and occupied 1,000 square kilometers of Iranian territory.
[...]
The main thrust of the attack was in the south, where five armored and
mechanized divisions invaded Khuzestan on two axes, one crossing over the
Shatt al Arab near Basra, which led to the siege and eventual occupation of
Khorramshahr, and the second heading for Susangerd, which had Ahvaz, the
major military base in Khuzestan, as its objective. Iraqi armored units
easily crossed the Shatt al Arab waterway and entered the Iranian province of
Khuzestan. [...]
The last major Iraqi territorial gain took place in early November 1980. On
November 3, Iraqi forces reached Abadan but were repulsed by a Pasdaran unit.
Even though they surrounded Abadan on three sides and occupied a portion of
the city, the Iraqis could not overcome the stiff resistance; sections of the
city still under Iranian control were resupplied by boat at night. On
November 10, Iraq captured Khorramshahr after a bloody house-to-house fight.
The price of this victory was high for both sides, approximately 6,000
casualties for Iraq and even more for Iran.
[...]Iran may have prevented a quick Iraqi victory by a rapid mobilization of
volunteers and deployment of loyal Pasdaran forces to the front. Besides
enlisting the Iranian pilots, the new revolutionary regime also recalled
veterans of the old imperial army, although many experienced officers, most
of whom had been trained in the United States, had been purged. Furthermore,
the Pasdaran and Basij (what Khomeini called the "Army of Twenty Million" or
People's Militia) recruited at least 100,000 volunteers. Approximately
200,000 soldiers were sent to the front by the end of November 1980. They
were ideologically committed troops (some members even carried their own
shrouds to the front in the expectation of martyrdom)
[...]President Saddam Hussein of Iraq may have thought that the approximately
3 million Arabs of Khuzestan would join the Iraqis against Tehran. Instead,
many allied with Iran's regular and irregular armed forces and fought in the
battles. [...]Iraqi troops lost their initiative and began to dig in along
their line of advance.
Tehran rejected a settlement offer and held the line against the militarily
superior Iraqi force. It refused to accept defeat, and slowly began a series
of counteroffensives in January 1981.
[...]
Iran stopped Iraqi forces on the Karun River and, with limited military
stocks, unveiled its "human wave" assaults, which used thousands of Basij
(Popular Mobilization Army or People's Army) volunteers. [...]
Iraqi Retreats, 1982-84
The Iranian high command passed from regular military leaders to clergy in
mid-1982.
In March 1982, Tehran launched its Operation Undeniable Victory, which marked
a major turning point [...]Saddam ordered a withdrawal to the international
borders, believing Iran would agree to end the war. Iran did not accept this
withdrawal as the end of the conflict, and continued the war into Iraq.
[...]Although Basra was within range of Iranian artillery, the clergy
used "human-wave" attacks by the Pasdaran and Basij against the city's
defenses, apparently waiting for a coup to topple Saddam Hussein. Tehran used
Pasdaran forces and Basij volunteers in one of the biggest land battles since
1945. Ranging in age from only nine to more than fifty, these eager but
relatively untrained soldiers swept over minefields and fortifications to
clear safe paths for the tanks. All such assaults faced Iraqi artillery fire
and received heavy casualties. [...]
By the end of 1982, Iraq had been resupplied with new Soviet materiel, and
the ground war entered a new phase. Iraq used newly acquired T-55 tanks and T-
62 tanks, BM-21 Stalin Organ rocket launchers, and Mi-24 helicopter gunships
to prepare a Soviet-type three-line defense, replete with obstacles,
minefields, and fortified positions.

Throughout 1983 both sides demonstrated their ability to absorb and to
inflict severe losses. [...]
In 1983 Iran launched three major, but unsuccessful, humanwave offensives,
with huge losses, along the frontier. On February 6, Tehran, using
200,000 "last reserve" Pasdaran troops, attacked along a 40-kilometer stretch
near Al Amarah, about 200 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. Backed by air,
armor, and artillery support, Iran's six-division thrust was strong enough to
break through. In response, Baghdad used massive air attacks, with more than
200 sorties, many flown by attack helicopters. More than 6,000 Iranians were
killed that day, while achieving only minute gains. In April 1983, the
Mandali-Baghdad northcentral sector witnessed fierce fighting, as repeated
Iranian attacks were stopped by Iraqi mechanized and infantry divisions.
Casualties were very high, and by the end of 1983, an estimated 120,000
Iranians and 60,000 Iraqis had been killed. [...]In addition, according to
Jane's Defence Weekly and other sources, Baghdad used chemical weapons
against Iranian troop concentrations and launched attacks on many economic
centers.
[...]In 1984 Iraq returned these airplanes to France and purchased
approximately thirty Mirage F-1 fighters equipped with Exocet missiles. Iraq
launched a new series
    • zwyczajny cd: Powiązane dzieci przeciwko broni chemicznej, 13.05.03, 05:18
      The War of Attrition, 1984-87
      By 1984 it was reported that some 300,000 Iranian soldiers and 250,000 Iraqi
      troops had been killed, or wounded. [...]
      [...]
      Lacking the equipment to open secure passages through Iraqi minefields, and
      having too few tanks, the Iranian command again resorted to the human-wave
      tactic. In March 1984, an East European journalist claimed that he "saw tens of
      thousands of children, roped together in groups of about twenty to prevent the
      faint-hearted from deserting, make such an attack."
      [...]
      Within a four-week period between February and March 1984, the Iraqis
      reportedly killed 40,000 Iranians and lost 9,000 of their own men, but even
      this was deemed an unacceptable ratio, and in February the Iraqi command
      ordered the use of chemical weapons. Despite repeated Iraqi denials, between
      May 1981 and March 1984, Iran charged Iraq with forty uses of chemical weapons.
      The year 1984 closed with part of the Majnun Islands and a few pockets of Iraqi
      territory in Iranian hands. Casualties notwithstanding, Tehran had maintained
      its military posture, while Baghdad was reevaluating its overall strategy.
      [...]
      The only major ground offensive, involving an estimated 60,000 Iranian troops,
      occurred in March 1985, near Basra; once again, the assault proved inconclusive
      except for heavy casualties. In 1986, however, Iraq suffered a major loss in
      the southern region. On February 9, Iran launched a successful surprise
      amphibious assault across the Shatt al Arab and captured the abandoned Iraqi
      oil port of Al Faw. The occupation of Al Faw, a logistical feat, involved
      30,000 regular Iranian soldiers who rapidly entrenched themselves.
      [...]
      Late, in March 1986, the UN secretary general, Javier Perez de Cuellar,
      formally accused Iraq of using chemical weapons against Iran. Citing the report
      of four chemical warfare experts whom the UN had sent to Iran in February and
      March 1986, the secretary general called on Baghdad to end its violation of the
      1925 Geneva Protocol on the use of chemical weapons. The UN report concluded
      that "Iraqi forces have used chemical warfare against Iranian forces"; the
      weapons used included both mustard gas and nerve gas. The report further stated
      that "the use of chemical weapons appear[ed] to be more extensive [in 1981]
      than in 1984." Iraq attempted to deny using chemicals, but the evidence, in the
      form of many badly burned casualties flown to European hospitals for treatment,
      was overwhelming. According to a British representative at the Conference on
      Disarmament in Geneva in July 1986, "Iraqi chemical warfare was responsible for
      about 10,000 casualties." In March 1988, Iraq was again charged with a major
      use of chemical warfare while retaking Halabjah, a Kurdish town in northeastern
      Iraq, near the Iranian border.
      Unable in 1986, however, to dislodge the Iranians from Al Faw, the Iraqis went
      on the offensive; they captured the city of Mehran in May, only to lose it in
      July 1986. The rest of 1986 witnessed small hit-and-run attacks by both sides,
      while the Iranians massed almost 500,000 troops for another promised "final
      offensive," which did not occur. But the Iraqis, perhaps for the first time
      since the outbreak of hostilities, began a concerted air-strike campaign in
      July. Heavy attacks on Khark Island forced Iran to rely on makeshift
      installations farther south in the Gulf at Sirri Island and Larak Island.
      Thereupon, Iraqi jets, refueling in midair or using a Saudi military base, hit
      Sirri and Larak. The two belligerents also attacked 111 neutral ships in the
      Gulf in 1986.
      [...]
      By late 1986, rumors of a final Iranian offensive against Basra proliferated.
      On 08 January 1987, Operation Karbala Five began, with Iranian units pushing
      westward between Fish Lake and the Shatt al Arab. This annual "final offensive"
      captured the town of Duayji and inflicted 20,000 casualties on Iraq, but at the
      cost of 65,000 Iranian casualties.

      Gradual Superpower Involvement
      [...] both superpowers supported the UN Security Council resolutions seeking an
      end to the war.
      [...]
      Subsequently, despite its professed neutrality, the Soviet Union became the
      major supplier of sophisticated arms to Iraq. [...]
      Special Weapons---------------------------------------
      To avoid defeat, Iraq sought out every possible weapon. This included
      developing a self-sustaining capability to produce militarily significant
      quantities of chemical warfare agents. In the defense, integrating chemical
      weapons offered a solution to the masses of lightly armed Basif and Posdoran.
      Chemical weapons were singularly effective when used on troop assembly areas
      and supporting artillery. When conducting offensive operations, Iraq routinely
      supported the attacks with deep fires and integrated chemical fires on forward
      defenses, command posts, artillery positions, and logistical facilities.
      During the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq developed the ability to produce, store, and use
      chemical weapons. These chemical weapons included H-series blister and G-series
      nerve agents. Iraq built these agents into various offensive munitions
      including rockets, artillery shells, aerial bombs, and warheads on the Al
      Hussein Scud missile variant. During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi fighter-attack
      aircraft dropped mustard-filled and tabun-filled 250 kilogram bombs and mustard-
      filled 500 kilogram bombs on Iranian targets. Other reports indicate that Iraq
      may have also installed spray tanks on an unknown number of helicopters or
      dropped 55-gallon drums filled with unknown agents (probably mustard) from low
      altitudes. [...]
      War Termination-------------------------------
      The Iran-Iraq war lasted nearly eight years, from September of 1980 until
      August of 1988. It ended when Iran accepted United Nations (UN) Security
      Council Resolution 598, leading to a 20 August 1988 cease-fire.

      Casualty figures are highly uncertain, though estimates suggest more than one
      and a half million war and war-related casualties
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