Editing Iran–Iraq War (section)

=={{anchor|Distinctions and peculiarity}} Comparison to other conflicts==
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{{Events leading to the Iraq War}}
[[Bruce Riedel]] describes the Iran–Iraq War as "one of the largest and longest conventional interstate wars" of the twentieth century and "the only war in modern times in which chemical weapons were used on a massive scale".<ref name="Riedel"/> [[Kanan Makiya]] writes that "there has not been anything like it in the long history of Iraqi–Iranian relations, just like there had been nothing like World War I in the history of Europe."<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Kanan Makiya|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq|edition=Updated|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|url-access=registration|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1998|isbn=9780520921245|page=[https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki/page/261 261]}}</ref>

[[Operation Scorch Sword|Iran's attack]] on the ''[[Osirak]]'' nuclear reactor in September 1980 was the first attack on a [[nuclear reactor]] and one of only a small handful of [[vulnerability of nuclear plants to attack|military attacks on nuclear facilities]] in history. It was also the first instance of a [[preemptive war|pre-emptive]] attack on a nuclear reactor to forestall the development of a [[nuclear weapon]], though it did not achieve its objective, as France repaired the reactor after the attack.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52412|title=Iran: Eyes on the Skies Over Bushehr Nuclear Reactor|last=Cohen|first=Marsha|newspaper=Inter Press Service News Agency|date=6 August 2010|access-date=2 August 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807121348/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52412|archive-date=7 August 2011}}</ref> (It took [[Operation Opera|a second pre-emptive strike]] by the [[Israeli Air Force]] in June 1981 to disable the reactor, killing a French engineer in the process and causing France to pull out of ''Osirak''. The decommissioning of ''Osirak'' has been cited as causing a substantial delay to Iraqi acquisition of nuclear weapons.<ref name="schneider_mcnair41">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://digitalndulibrary.ndu.edu/u?/ndupress,6475|title=Radical Responses to Radical Regimes: Evaluating Preemptive Counter-Proliferation|series=McNair Paper|date=1980|publisher=National Defense University Library|access-date=2 August 2011|chapter=Iran Attacks an Iraqi Nuclear Reactor|last=Schneider|first=Barry|issue=41}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/osiraq.htm|title=Osiraq: Iraq Special Weapons Facilities|publisher=Federation of American Scientists|access-date=2 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901175613/http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/osiraq.htm|archive-date=1 September 2009|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="reiter05">{{cite journal|url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/Osirak.pdf|title=Preventive Attacks Against Nuclear Programs and the "Success" at Osiraq"|doi=10.1080/10736700500379008|series=Viewpoint|last=Reiter|first=Dan|issn=1746-1766|date=July 2005|publisher=The Monterey Institute of International Studies, Center for Nonproliferation Studies|journal=Nonproliferation Review|volume=12|issue=2|pages=355–371|s2cid=144450978|access-date=3 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002083323/http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/Osirak.pdf|archive-date=2 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=rass07>{{cite journal|url=http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/is3104_pp007-033_raas_long.pdf|title=Osirak Redux? Assessing Israeli Capabilities to Destroy Iranian Nuclear Facilities|last1=Raas|first1=Whitney|last2=Long|first2=Austin|publisher=Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs|journal=International Security|volume=31|date=Spring 2007|pages=7–33|issue=4|doi=10.1162/isec.2007.31.4.7|s2cid=57560777|access-date=6 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706112857/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/is3104_pp007-033_raas_long.pdf|archive-date=6 July 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://airtoair.blogfa.com/post-18.aspx|script-title=fa:پايگاه هشتم شكاري|publisher=Airtoair|access-date=2 August 2011|language=fa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708020616/http://airtoair.blogfa.com/post-18.aspx|archive-date=8 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>)

The Iran–Iraq War was the first conflict in the history of warfare in which both forces used [[ballistic missile]]s against each other.<ref name="schneider_mcnair41" /> This war also saw the only confirmed air-to-air helicopter battles in history with the Iraqi [[Mi-25]]s flying against Iranian [[Bell AH-1 SuperCobra|AH-1J SeaCobras]] (supplied by the United States before the [[Iranian revolution]]) on several separate occasions. In November 1980, not long after Iraq's initial invasion of Iran, two Iranian SeaCobras engaged two Mi-25s with [[BGM-71 TOW|TOW]] wire-guided antitank missiles. One Mi-25 went down immediately, the other was badly damaged and crashed before reaching base.<ref name=vert /><ref name="greg" />

The Iranians repeated this accomplishment on 24 April 1981, destroying two Mi-25s without incurring losses to themselves.<ref name=vert /> One Mi-25 was also downed by an Iranian [[F-14A Tomcat]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=62|title=I Persian Gulf War: Iraqi Invasion of Iran, September 1980|access-date=10 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808125733/http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=62|archive-date=8 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The Iraqis hit back, claiming the destruction of a SeaCobra on 14 September 1983 (with YaKB machine gun), then three SeaCobras on 5 February 1984<ref name="greg">{{cite web|url=http://www.airvectors.net/avhind_2.html|title=Hind in Foreign Service / Hind Upgrades / Mi-28 Havoc|date=16 September 2012|work=The Mil Mi-24 Hind & Mi-28 Havoc|first=Greg|last=Goebel|access-date=16 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113105640/http://www.airvectors.net/avhind_2.html|archive-date=13 November 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> and three more on 25 February 1984 (two with Falanga missiles, one with S-5 rockets).<ref name=vert /> After a lull in helicopter losses, each side lost a gunship on 13 February 1986.<ref name=vert>Yakubovich, Nikolay. ''Boevye vertolety Rossii. Ot "Omegi" do "Alligatora"'' (Russia's combat helicopters. From Omega to Alligator). Moscow, Yuza & Eksmo, 2010, {{ISBN|978-5-699-41797-1}}, pp. 164–173.</ref> Later, a Mi-25 claimed a SeaCobra shot down with YaKB gun on 16 February, and a SeaCobra claimed a Mi-25 shot down with rockets on 18 February.<ref name=vert />

The last engagement between the two types was on 22 May 1986, when Mi-25s shot down a SeaCobra. The final claim tally was 10 SeaCobras and 6 Mi-25s destroyed. The relatively small numbers and the inevitable disputes over actual kill numbers makes it unclear if one gunship had a real technical superiority over the other. Iraqi Mi-25s also claimed 43 kills against other Iranian helicopters, such as [[UH-1 Iroquois|Agusta-Bell UH-1 Hueys]].<ref name="greg" /> Both sides, especially Iraq, also carried out air and missile attacks against population centres.

In October 1986, Iraqi aircraft began to attack civilian passenger trains and aircraft on Iranian soil, including an [[Iran Air]] Boeing 737 unloading passengers at [[Shiraz International Airport]].<ref name="r1" /> In retaliation for the Iranian Operation Karbala 5, Iraq attacked 65 cities in 226 sorties over 42 days, bombing civilian neighbourhoods. Eight Iranian cities came under attack from Iraqi missiles. The bombings killed 65 children in an elementary school in [[Borujerd]]. The Iranians responded with Scud missile attacks on Baghdad and struck a primary school there. These events became known as the ''war of the cities''.<ref name="AggrPolitics" />

The war of the cities resumed and peaked in 1988, when Iraq dropped 40 tons of high explosives on Tehran using modified Scud missiles (dubbed "al-Husayn" missiles) over seven weeks, causing panic among civilians and prompting almost 1 million residents of Tehran to temporarily flee their homes. Nevertheless, scholars have noted that this still "ranks as one of the smallest strategic bombing campaigns in history", paling in comparison to [[strategic bombing during World War II]], which saw 1.2 million tons of bombs dropped on German cities in 1944 alone, or more recent events such as the [[Operation Linebacker II|so-called "Christmas bombings"]] of [[North Vietnam]], which saw 20,000 tons of bombs dropped on [[Hanoi]] and [[Haiphong]] in a mere eleven days. In total, 10,000–11,000 civilians died as a result of the aerial bombardment of Iranian cities with the majority of those deaths occurring in the final year of the war.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=1987–1988: An end in sight?|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1107062290|pages=330–331 (e-book, page numbers approximate)}}</ref>

Despite the war, Iran and Iraq maintained diplomatic relations and embassies in each other's countries until mid-1987.<ref name="Cooper Blinders" />

Iran's government used human waves to attack enemy troops and even in some cases to clear minefields. Children volunteered as well. Some reports mistakenly have the Basijis marching into battle while marking their expected entry to heaven by wearing "[[Plastic Keys to Paradise]]" around their necks, although other analysts regard this story as a hoax involving a misinterpretation of the carrying of a prayer book called "The Keys to Paradise"([[Mafatih al-Janan]]) by Sheikh Abbas Qumi given to all volunteers.<ref name="moin" />

According to journalist Robin Wright:

<blockquote>During the Fateh offensive in February 1987, I toured the southwest front on the Iranian side and saw scores of boys, aged anywhere from nine to sixteen, who said with staggering and seemingly genuine enthusiasm that they had volunteered to become martyrs. Regular army troops, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards and [[mullah]]s all lauded these youths, known as baseeji [Basij], for having played the most dangerous role in breaking through Iraqi lines. They had led the way, running over fields of mines to clear the ground for the Iranian ground assault. Wearing white headbands to signify the embracing of death, and shouting "[[Shahid|Shaheed]], shaheed" (Martyr, martyr) they literally blew their way into heaven. Their numbers were never disclosed. But a walk through the residential suburbs of Iranian cities provided a clue. Window after window, block after block, displayed black-bordered photographs of teenage or preteen youths.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Robin|title=Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam|year=2001|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7432-3342-2|edition=Updated|page=[https://archive.org/details/sacredragewratho00wrig_0/page/37 37]|url=https://archive.org/details/sacredragewratho00wrig_0/page/37}}</ref></blockquote>