Al-Faw peninsula
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The Al-Faw peninsula (
Iran-Iraq War
During the
It marked the first time that the Iranians had successfully invaded and occupied Iraqi territory. The Iranians defeated several Iraqi Republican Guard counter-offensives and managed to hang on to their foothold.
The occupation of al-Faw placed Basra at risk of being attacked. The Iranians also used the peninsula as a launch pad for
On April 17, 1988, the newly-restructured Iraqi Army began a major operation, "Ramadan Mubarak," which was aimed to clear the Iranians out of the peninsula. The Iraqis concentrated well over 100,000 troops from the Republican Guard versus 15,000 second-rate Iranian Basij soldiers.[1]
By using sarin nerve gas,[2] artillery barrages and air bombardments, the Iraqis eventually expelled the Iranians from the peninsula within 35 hours, with much of their equipment captured intact. The event was marked as an official national holiday under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, celebrated as the Faw City Liberation Day.[3]
Anglo-American occupation
The 1991 Gulf War was fought south and west of al-Faw, but the peninsula's military installations were heavily bombed by Allied forces during the conflict. The Allied forces effectively closed down all of Iraq's shipping activities and thus rendered its access to the Shatt al-Arab and the Persian Gulf useless.
The peninsula was one of the first targets of the Coalition forces in the
The British, based at Camp Driftwood, provided the security and countersmuggling force on land, and the American forces providing maritime assistance. Camp Driftwood was handed to Iraqi control in March 2007 by troops from 1st Battalion
See also
- List of places in Iraq
- Iran–Iraq War
- Al-Faw Palace
- Al-Fao artillery system
- Al-Faw
References
- ISBN 0-8032-8783-6.
- Foreign Policy. Archived from the originalon 2013-08-26. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
- ISBN 9781107001084.
- ^ Operations in Iraq: Lessons for the Future. Ministry of Defence/National Archives. "The Al Faw Peninsula Operation" (sidebar), p. 11. Retrieved 16 January 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84603-357-5.