Iran/Iraq War
Iraq invaded Iran via land and air on September 22, 1980. Iraq’s reason for starting the war was their perception that Iranian forces were staging raids across their common borders. Including an area called Shatt al Arab, a waterway that empties in the Persian Gulf and forms the boundary between Iran and Iraq. Iraq also hoped to seize the western Iranian region of Khuzestan, an area known for its extensive oil fields. The war was known as the First Persian Gulf War; over half a million (most likely more) troops were killed on both sides, and lest half a million more became invalids. Over 228 billion dollars were expended and more than 400 billion dollars of damage. The war, started by the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein lasted 9 years, longer than either world war. Iran was on the defensive for the entire war. It included three modes of warfare: indiscriminate ballistic-missile attacks on cities by both sides; the extensive use of chemical weapons (mostly by Iraq); and over 520 attacks on third-country oil tankers in the Persian Gulf (again, mostly Iraq). Iran used mines, gunboats, shore launched missiles, and helicopters against tankers lifting oil from the terminals of Iraq’s Arab backers.
Both countries agreed to accept the terms of a United Nations cease fire resolution to end the war in August 1988.
http://www.encyclopdia.com/topic/iran-iraq_War.aspx
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/iraniraq.htm
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