Operation Badr (Iran-Iraq War)
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| Operation Badr | |||||||||
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| Part of Iran-Iraq War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
.svg/22px-Flag_of_Iraq_(1963-1991).svg.png){kind=small} Iraq |
 Iran |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 40-60,000 | 100,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Estimates range from 10,000-12,000 | Approximately 20,000 | ||||||||
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Operaion Badr was an Iranian operation conducted during the Iran-Iraq War against the forces of Ba'thist Iraq. The Iranians launched their offensive on the 10th March and succeeded in capturing a part of the highway. The following Iraqi counter attack, however, forced the Iranians out in a continual war of endless stalemate.
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[edit] Prelude
After its failure to capture Basra in 1982, Iran launched Operation Dawn in 1983 to capture the Baghdad-Basra highway. The Operation failed, but Iran proceeded to launch Operation Badr in a further attempt to capture it. Without coincidence, the operation was named after the Prophet Mohammed's first military victory in Mecca centuries before.
The aim of the offensive was focused on capturing the Baghdad-Basra highway, which was a vital link between the two major cities, and for the movement of military supplies and vehicles to support and replenish the Iraqi defenders at the front-line. Another objective included the crossing of the Tigris River, which would cut off Basra from Iraq and give an equally psychological blow to the country.
Iran found itself reorganizing the Pasdaran and Basij units into more conventional means as a response to several failures in the past. Although highly motivated, the Iranians were poorly trained and lacked heavy equipment, including armor, artillery, and air support to back up the operation. At the same time, Iran was also suffering the effects of the U.S.'s Operation Staunch embargo. In vise versa, the Iraqis were better trained and had the luxury of better equipment, better training, and foreign funding, including the illegal use of poison gas however they lacked numbers.
[edit] The Battle
On March 11, Iran sent in a force of 100,000 men to attack the Baghdad-Basra Highway through the swampy terrain north-east of al-Qurnah. [1] Initially they succeeded in capturing part of the highway but Iraq opened a counter-attack with artillery, air strikes, and the Republican Guard. Saddam Hussein, the leader of the Ba'ath regime in Iraq, ordered the use of chemical attacks to evict the Iranians who had occupied the highway. This, along with a push by the Iraqi army, was able to push the Iranians back to their previous lines.
The Iraqis suffered almost as heavy casualties as the Iranians, having fought a tumultuous ground war.
[edit] Aftermath
In response to Operation Badr, Saddam opened the second "War of the Cities" during March that year, hitting cities as far as Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, and even Tehran. Iran responded in kind with attacks of her own against Iraqi civilians, mostly by launching medium range missiles into the port city of Basra.
[edit] Bibliography
1. In The Name Of God: The Khomeini Decade, by Robin Wright, Simon and Schuster, 1989
- ^ Hume, Cameron R. (1994). The United Nations, Iran, and Iraq: How Peacemaking Changed. Indiana University Press, 50. ISBN 0253328748.
