Iraqi Offensives on Iran

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Iraqi Offensives on Iran (July - Aug 1988)
Part of the Tawaklna ala Allah Operations in the Iran–Iraq War
Date 12 July - 8 August 1988 (3 weeks and 6 days) Location Iran Result Decisive Iraqi Victory Iraqis renewed major offensives into Iranian territory (occupying 9,600sq.km) resulting in the capture of dozens of towns; Iran's submission to UN's resolution regarding a ceasefire with Iraq.
Belligerents
Iraq	Iran
Commanders and leaders
Gen. al-Rashid (Command & 7th Corps)< Lt. Gen. al-Rawi (Republican Guard) Mj. Gen. Mahmoud (3rd Corps)	Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Mohsen Rezaee Colonel Ali Shahbazi
Units involved
Republican Guard 7th Corps 3rd Corps Special Forces 16th and 3rd brigades	Revolutionary Guard, Basij, Regular Army
Strength
100,000–135,000 soldiers in action 1,500,000 total soldiers 5,500 tanks 900 aircraft	60,000–100,000 soldiers in action 300,000 total soldiers 400 tanks 55 operational aircraft
Casualties and losses
3,000+ casualties	40,000+ casualties 20,000 captured 90 tanks destroyed 600 tanks, 400 AFVs, 20 SSMs, 400 various AA guns captured

Iraqi Offensives on Iran (Jul - Aug 1988)

The Iraqi Offensives on Iran was an offensive as part of the Tawaklna ala Allah Operations during the late stages of the Iran-Iraq War. In which, Iraqis renewed their offensives towards Iran.

The Offensive

The final two Tawakal Ala Allah operations took place in Amarah in the direction of Dehloran and Khanaqin in the direction of Qasre Shirin. On July 12, Iraqi forces shelled the Iranian positions around the Zubaidat area near the border, a group of oil fields east of Amarah. These were some of the last occupied positions on Iraqi territory, and the shelling was soon followed by a new Iraqi attack with a force of about five divisions. At 7:30 AM, Republican Guards forces, and forces from Iraq's 4th Corps, advanced on the Iranian positions. It is unclear whether Iraq used gas, but the Iranian defenses quickly collapsed. Within a matter of hours, Iraq was in control of virtually all of the Iranian positions on its territory, and took roughly 2,500 Iranian prisoners. By 12 July at the central front, the Iraqis had driven away from Amarah, and moved into Iran on a broad offensive, swept aside scattered Iranian resistance, and captured the city of Dehloran and Qasre Shirin, 30 kilometres (19 mi) and 20 kilometres (12 mi) respectively inside Iran, and captured another 2,500 Iranian troops along with substantial amount of armour and materiel, which took days to transport to Iraq. In addition the Iraqis captured the Iranian towns of Sumar, Naft Shahr, Sarpol Zahab, Saleh Abad, Mousiyan, Patak, as well as dozens of other towns along the central and southern portions of the border, along with occupying and cutting off the strategically important Ahvaz-Khorramshahr highway and in places reaching and occupying important crossing-points on the Karkheh river. The intention was to push Khomeini to accept UN security council resolution 598. Had Iran not accepted the ceasefire and had Iraq willed it, Iraq could have continued to occupy this Iranian territory. However, soon after Khomeini's acceptance of the UN ceasefire deal on 20 July 1988, the Iraqis withdrew from the towns, claiming that they had no desire to conquer Iranian territory. Iraq had proved that Iran could no longer occupy Iraqi territory, and showed the rejuvenated power of Iraq's Army after being resupplied by the USSR the previous two years.

Aftermath

The speedy Iraqi attacks took the Iranians by surprise and sent them into a state of confusion; they found themselves surrounded by Iraqi troops on all sides and lost all control over their forces. Thus this large-scale operation ended with the liberation of all occupied Iraqi territories. The Iranian troops in the various sectors involved in the operation had received a fatal blow; their various headquarters and formations had virtually ceased to exist. During the 1988 battles, the Iranians put up little resistance to the Iraqi offensives, having been worn out by nearly eight years of war. They lost large amounts of equipment; and 20,000 Iranian troops had been taken prisoner of war throughout the course of the operations. It was the operation that effectively ended the war, and it represented a clear Iraqi victory over the Iranian forces. The Iraqis carried out their missions quickly, efficiently, and with full coordination. In the fall of 1988, the Iraqis displayed in Baghdad captured Iranian weapons amounting to more than three-quarters (75%) of the Iranian armor inventory and almost half of its artillery pieces and armored personnel carriers. On 2 July, Iran belatedly set up a joint central command which unified the Revolutionary Guard, Army, and Kurdish rebels, and dispel the rivalry between the Army and the Revolutionary Guard. However this came too late, and Iran was believed to have fewer than 200 remaining tanks on the southern front, faced against thousands of Iraqi tanks. In addition, the US launched Operation Praying Mantis (which devastated Iran's navy on the same day as the 2nd Battle of Al Faw), and the accidental US shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 helped to convince Iran's leadership of their isolation and their inability to succeed in the war.

The battles simultaneously highlighted the maturity of the Iraqi army, which had evolved throughout the war to the point where, during the Tawakal ala Allah Operations, it could carry out combined-arms operations utilising the different branches of the Iraqi Armed Forces as a single cohesive force.

Iraqi chemical weapons contributed decisively to their victories.

With the Iranian Army in retreat, various elements of the Iranian leadership, led by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (who had initially pushed for the extension of the war), persuaded Khomeini to sue for peace due to Iran's almost non-existent morale and impending bankruptcy. On 20 July 1988, Iran accepted Resolution 598, showing its willingness to accept a ceasefire, and on 20 August 1988, peace was officially restored. After a series of battles, in which Iraq had emerged as the victor, the leadership in Baghdad stated that they no longer desired to conquer Iranian territory. The success of the Iraqi armed forces had convinced the clerics of Iran that they could not attain their objectives on the field of battle and to accept the ceasefire.

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