zwyczajny
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