Battle of Khorramshahr

Battle of Khorramshahr

Part of: First Gulf War

Iranian soldiers in Khorramshahr

date	September 22, 1980 to October 24, 1980
place	Khorramshahr , Khuzestan , Iran
output	Iraqi victory
consequences	Iraq conquers Khorramshahr

Parties to the conflict
Iraq	Iran
losses
approx. 7,000 soldiers	unknown

Geographical location of Khorramshahr and Abadan

As Battle of Khorramshahr the invasion are Iranian city of Khorramshahr by Iraqi troops September 22, 1980 and refers to the subsequent fighting. The attack marks the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war together with the air strikes that took place at the same time on major Iranian cities . Khorramshahr fell on October 24 and was under Iraqi control until 1982. Well over 10,000 people were killed in the fighting for the city. Khorramshahr was therefore later renamed Khunishahr (City of Blood) by the Iranian and Iraqi troops .

Strategic importance

Khorramshahr is located directly on the Shatt al-Arab , the border river between Iraq and Iran. Abadan , an important center of Iranian oil production, is in the immediate vicinity to the southeast . Abadan was the main target of the Iraqi army. Khorramshahr, with its large port and good road connections, serves as an important transshipment point for the Iranian oil industry. Among other things, the oil pipeline that connected Abadan with Tehran and thus with most of Iran ran through Khorramshahr. Since Abadan enjoyed a certain natural protection against invasion on an island between the Shatt al-Arab and a tributary of the Karun , the Iraqi strategy envisaged getting to Abadan by land from the northwest by conquering and securing Khorramshahr.

Shortly before the Iraqi attack, Saddam Hussein canceled the 1975 agreement of Algiers and claimed complete sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab. Control over Khorramshahr and Abadan was of great importance for this claim, especially since they were the only two major Iranian cities that were less than 50 kilometers from the Iraqi border. Since the Iraqi leadership in Baghdad announced the successful conquest, contrary to the course of the battle, just a few days after the attack, the pressure on the army to actually take the city increased.

Course of the battle

Iranian command

On September 22, Iraqi artillery began bombarding areas east of the river from the west bank of the Shatt al-Arab. On the morning of the following day, a division of the Iraqi army crossed the Shatt al-Arab and reached the north-western outskirts of Khorramshahr on September 25 without much resistance. The Iranians began evacuating the civilian population. In addition to the soldiers, only volunteer defenders remained, mostly Pasdaran and Basij-e Mostaz'afin , as well as hospital staff and security forces.

Iraqi artillery fire on Khorramshahr was intensified on September 26th and maintained until September 28th. Up until that point, Iranian resistance consisted of countering artillery fire and occasional air strikes against Iraqi reinforcement and resupply efforts on the Shatt al-Arab. On the night of September 30th, Iraqi ground forces tried to take the city for the first time. Special forces penetrated into the city center at the same time on foot by land and with small boats across the river at different points and suffered great losses in countless house-to-house fights , so that they were forced to abandon the offensive after they controlled the northern part of the city.

On October 1, the Iranian defenders of the city received a troop reinforcement of around 2,000 men by helicopter. The following days were marked by bloody fighting. The Iraqi army, vastly outnumbered, advanced further into the city but met fierce resistance in many places. There were numerous small counter-attacks by the Iranians, who also focused the artillery fire on advancing Iraqi tanks. The losses on both sides were high and on October 6th the port of the city was in the hands of the Iraqis, who were now also supported by MiGs of their air force. By October 10, the fighting shifted more and more to the city center.

On October 12, the Iraqis launched an offensive against the bridge over the Karun in the east of the city. The bridge was the main link to Abadan and was defended by Iranian resistance fighters and some tanks. The fighting over the bridge lasted four days and ended in a retreat by the Iranians. Between October 16 and October 24, Iraqi soldiers eliminated the remaining Iranians on the west side of the bridge. At the end of October, Khorramshahr was completely in Iraqi hands. The remaining Iranians withdrew to Abadan and the Iraqis began to prepare for the siege of Abadan . Khorramshahr remained under Iraqi control until the Iranian reconquest in 1982.

literature

• John Bulloch: The Gulf War: its origins, history and consequences , London 1989 (English)

Web links

Commons : Battle of Khorramshahr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• MOUT in Iraq: Population Dependent?

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Bulloch and Harvey Morris: The Gulf war: Its Oricrins, Historv and Conseuuencec , London 1989, p. 101 (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Michael E. Hoffpauir: Tactical evolution in the iraqi army: The Abadan Island and Fish Lake campaigns of he Iran-Iraq War , 1991 (English)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} R.D. McLaurin: Military Operations in the Gulf War: The Battle of Khorramshahr (as PDF ), 1982 (English)