Siege of Basra
Siege of Basra Operation Karbala-5 The Great Harvest | |||||||||
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Part of the Iran–Iraq War | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Republic of Iraq | Iran | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
al-Rashid[3] Lt. Gen. Dhia ul-Din Jamal[4] Maj. Gen. Khalil al-Dhouri Brig. Gen. Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat[5] Brig. Gen. Riyadh Taha[5] Brig. Gen. Hassan Yusuf[5] Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Ismail[5] Brig. Gen. Hamid Salman[5] | |||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
3rd Corps
7th Corps[7] National Defense Battalions |
Basij and Revolutionary Guards (70%): | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
300,000 (four armies)[citation needed] | 150,000–200,000 (six divisions from army & rest from the Basij militia)[citation needed] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
10,000 killed 150 tanks and 10 aircraft lost[1] |
40,000 killed 218 armored vehicles 21 boats[8] | ||||||||
≈2 million civilians displaced |
The siege of Basra, code-named Operation Karbala-5 (
The battle
Operation Karbala-5 began midnight 8 January 1987, when a strike force of 35,000 Revolutionary Guards infantrymen crossed Fish Lake, while four Iranian divisions attacked at the southern shore of the lake, overrunning the Iraqi forces and capturing Duaiji, an irrigation canal. They used their bridgehead at Duaiji as a springboard. Between 9–10 January, the Iranians broke through the first and second defense lines of Basra south of the Fish Lake with tanks.[9][10] The Iranians rapidly reinforced their forces with 60,000 troops and began to clear the remaining Iraqis in the area.[9]
As early as 9 January, the Iraqis began a counter-attack, supported by newer
Despite superior Iranian infantry tactics, it was the depth of the Iraqi defences that prevented the Iranians from achieving a victory. In spite of its reinforcements, Iran soon took so many additional casualties that it again lost forward momentum. By January 16, the U.S. estimated that the fighting had led to roughly 40,000 Iranian and 10,000 Iraqi casualties. The evidence of such casualty levels was all too tangible. Iran suffered an exceptionally high ratio of killed to wounded, and many of the dead were left on the battlefield.[12]
On 19–24 January, Iran launched another infantry offensive, breaking the third line and driving the Iraqis across the Jasim river. The battle became a contest of which side could bring more
Among those killed was Iranian commander
The Iraqis had fought an excellent defensive battle at Basra, as they had succeeded in fighting the Iranians to a complete standstill thwarting their obsession with capturing the city. The end of the battle saw a considerable breakdown of Iranian morale as hereafter only a small percent signed up for volunteering in the fanatical revolutionary guards or basij.[16]
Bibliography
- The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, by Robert Fisk, Knopf Books, 2005
- "The Gulf Iran Strikes on Two Fronts", by William E. Smith, Time, 26 January 1987
- "The Gulf", Time, 2 February 1987
- "The Gulf Life Among Smoldering Ruins", by Dean Fischer, Time, 30 March 1987
- In The Name of God: The Khomeini Decade, by Robin Wright, Simon and Schuster, 1989
- Essential Histories: The Iran–Iraq War, 1980–1988, by Efraim Karsh, Osprey Publishing, 2002
- Journey to Heading 270 Degrees, by Ahmad Dihqan and Paul Sprachman, Mazda Publishers, 2006
- The Longest War, by Dilip Hiro, Routlage Chapman & Hall, 1991.
- http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/9005lessonsiraniraqii-chap08.pdf Archived 7 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- Farrokh, Kaveh (20 December 2011). Iran at War: 1500-1988. ISBN 9781780962214.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0674915718.
- ^ ISBN 964-06-5515-5.
- ^ Pelletiere, Stephen C (10 December 1990). Lessons Learned: Iran–Iraq War. Marine Corps Historical Publication. p. 40.
- ^ Hoffpauir, Michael E. (June 1991). "Tactical Evolution in the Iraqi Army: The Abadan Island and Fish Lake campaigns of the Iran-Iraq War" (PDF). Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College: 104. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ ISBN 9780160896132.
- ^ a b "/خاطره اختصاصی محسن رضایی از کربلای ۵/". خبرگزاری فارس. Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
- ^ Hoffpauir, Michael E. (June 1991). "Tactical Evolution in the Iraqi Army: The Abadan Island and Fish Lake campaigns of the Iran–Iraq War" (PDF). Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College: 94. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20160530073559/https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/9005lessonsiraniraqii-chap08.pdf
- ^ ISBN 9781780962214.
- ^ ISBN 9780803287839.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20160530073559/https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/9005lessonsiraniraqii-chap08.pdf
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20160530073559/https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/9005lessonsiraniraqii-chap08.pdf
- ^ a b c d "https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|title=
- ^ "Iran Iraq war, Iran-Iraq war". iraniraqwar.com. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ Kevin M. Woods; Williamson Murray; Elizabeth A. Nathan; Laila Sabara; Ana M. Venegas (29 September 2011). "Saddam's Generals" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
- ProQuest 220899524.