Editing Iran–Iraq War (section)

====Operation Mersad and end of the war====
[[Operation Mersad]] ({{lang|fa|مرصاد}} "ambush") was the last big military operation of the war. Both Iran and Iraq had accepted Resolution 598, but despite the ceasefire, after seeing Iraqi victories in the previous months, [[People's Mujahedin of Iran|Mujahadeen-e-Khalq]] (MEK) decided to launch an attack of its own and wished to advance all the way to Tehran. Saddam and the Iraqi high command decided on a two-pronged offensive across the border into central Iran and Iranian Kurdistan.<ref name="Farrokh 03" /> Shortly after Iran accepted the ceasefire, the MEK army began its offensive, attacking into Ilam province under cover of Iraqi air power. In the north, Iraq also launched an attack into Iraqi Kurdistan, which was blunted by the Iranians.<ref name="Farrokh 03" />

On 26 July 1988, the MEK started their campaign in central Iran, Operation Forough Javidan (Eternal Light), with the support of the Iraqi army. The Iranians had withdrawn their remaining soldiers to Khuzestan in fear of a new Iraqi invasion attempt, allowing the Mujahedeen to advance rapidly towards [[Kermanshah]], seizing [[Qasr-e Shirin]], [[Sarpol-e Zahab]], [[Kerend-e Gharb]], and [[Eslamabad-e Gharb|Islamabad-e-Gharb]]. The MEK expected the Iranian population to rise up and support their advance; the uprising never materialised but they reached {{convert|145|km|mi|abbr=on}} deep into Iran. In response, the Iranian military launched its counter-attack, [[Operation Mersad]], under Lieutenant General [[Ali Sayyad Shirazi]]. Iranian [[paratroopers]] landed behind the MEK lines while the Iranian Air Force and helicopters launched an air attack, destroying much of the enemy columns.<ref name="Farrokh 03" /> The Iranians defeated the MEK in the city of [[Kerend-e Gharb]] on 29 July 1988.<ref name="csis10" /> On 31 July, Iran drove the MEK out of Qasr-e-Shirin and Sarpol Zahab, though MEK claimed to have "voluntarily withdrawn" from the towns.<ref name="Farrokh 03" /><ref name="csis10" /> Iran estimated that 4,500 MEK were killed, while 400 Iranian soldiers died.<ref name="tebyan05">{{cite web|url=http://www.tebyan.net/newindex.aspx?pid=27220|title=Mersad operation|date=27 July 2005|publisher=Tebyan|work=Special Edition}}</ref>

[[File:Mujahedin was killed in Operation Mersad by Pasdaran in Kermanshah.jpg|thumb|left|[[People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran|MEK]] soldiers killed in Operation Mersad, 1988]]

The last notable combat actions of the war took place on 3 August 1988, in the Persian Gulf when the Iranian navy fired on a [[cargo ship|freighter]] and Iraq launched chemical attacks on Iranian civilians, killing an unknown number of them and wounding 2,300.<ref name="csis10" /> Iraq came under international pressure to curtail further offensives. Resolution 598 became effective on 8 August 1988, ending all combat operations between the two countries.<ref name="dodds09" /> By 20 August 1988, peace with Iran was restored.<ref name="dodds09" /> [[UN peacekeepers]] belonging to the [[UNIIMOG]] mission took the field, remaining on the Iran–Iraq border until 1991. The majority of Western analysts believe that the war had no winners while some believed that Iraq emerged as the victor of the war, based on Iraq's overwhelming successes between April and July 1988.<ref name="Farrokh 03" /> While the war was now over, Iraq spent the rest of August and early September clearing the Kurdish resistance. Using 60,000 troops along with helicopter gunships, chemical weapons (poison gas), and mass executions, Iraq hit 15 villages, killing rebels and civilians, and forced tens of thousands of Kurds to relocate to [[concentration camp|settlements]].<ref name="csis10" /> Many Kurdish civilians fled to Iran. By 3 September 1988, the anti-Kurd campaign ended, and all resistance had been crushed.<ref name="csis10" /> 400 Iraqi soldiers and 50,000–100,000 Kurdish civilians and soldiers had been killed.<ref name="csis10" /><ref name="wong06">{{cite news|last=Wong|first=Edward|title=Hussein charged with genocide in 50,000 deaths|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/world/middleeast/05iraq.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=5 April 2006|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624093312/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/world/middleeast/05iraq.html|archive-date=24 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the war's conclusion, it took several weeks for the [[Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran]] to evacuate Iraqi territory to honour pre-war international borders set by the [[1975 Algiers Agreement]].<ref name="Farrokh 03">{{cite book|last=Farrokh|first=Kaveh|title=Iran at War: 1500–1988|publisher=Osprey Publishing|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1-78096-221-4|date=2011}}</ref> The last [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] were exchanged in 2003.<ref name="molavi05">{{cite book|last=Molavi|first=Afshin|title=The Soul of Iran: A Nation's Journey to Freedom|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2005|isbn=978-0-393-32597-3|edition=Revised|location=England|page=152}}</ref><ref name=nazila03>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/world/threats-and-responses-briefly-noted-iran-iraq-prisoner-deal.html|work=The New York Times|first=Nazila|last=Fathi|title=Threats And Responses: Briefly Noted; Iran–Iraq Prisoner Deal|date=14 March 2003|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813175245/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/world/threats-and-responses-briefly-noted-iran-iraq-prisoner-deal.html|archive-date=13 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Security Council identified Iraq as the [[War of aggression|aggressor]] of the war in 1991.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tarock|first1=Adam|title=The superpowers' involvement in the Iran–Iraq War|date=1998|publisher=Nova Science Publishers|location=Commack, NY|isbn=978-1-56072-593-0|page=208}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Iran_Iraq_War_Legal_and_International_Dimensions.htm|title=Iran–Iraq War: Legal and International Dimensions|work=iranreview.org|access-date=31 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420110303/http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Iran_Iraq_War_Legal_and_International_Dimensions.htm|archive-date=20 April 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>