December 1985. After years of war, the Iranians are feeling the pinch of social unrest. Determined to finish Saddam Hussein and his Army, chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani made it clear that the only way to finish the war would be an attack on Basra. The first phase of the operation would be crossing the the Shatt al-Arab river, south of Basra (Operation Karbala 4) and to turn the Iraqi defensive positions centered on Basra.
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The lead tank of an Iraqi T-62 platoon moves west to be debriefed at the tactical command post. |
The Iraqis understood the importance of defeating the Iranian offensive right at the onset of the operation. Iraqi General Maher Rashid led a successful clearing of the Iranian bridgehead. This blog entry shows how that fighting may have looked like from the Iraqi side.