Battle of Khorramshahr
As the Battle of Khorramshahr the invasion of the Iranian city of Khorramshahr by Iraqi troops on 22 September 1980 and subsequent hostilities are called. The attack marked together with the simultaneously carried air attacks on Iranian cities the start of the Iran -Iraq war. On October 24, Khorramshahr fell and was until 1982 under Iraqi control. In the battles around the city of more than 10,000 people were killed. Khorramshahr was renamed by the Iranian and Iraqi troops later in Khunishahr ( city of blood ).
Strategic importance
Khorramshahr is located on the Shatt al-Arab, which marks the border between Iraq and Iran. Southeast in the immediate neighborhood is Abadan, an important center of Iranian oil production. Abadan was the main objective of the Iraqi army. Khorramshahr is used with its large port and due to the good road access as an important transshipment point of the Iranian oil industry. Among other things, the oil pipeline that ran Abadan with Tehran and thus the bulk of Iran joined by Khorramshahr. Since Abadan enjoyed a certain natural protection from invasion on an island between the Shatt al-Arab and a tributary of the Karun, it looked before the Iraqi strategy to reach a conquest and securing Chorramschahrs by land from the northwest to Abadan.
Shortly before the Iraqi attack, Saddam Hussein announced in 1975 closed the Algiers Agreements and claimed full sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab. The control of Khorramshahr and Abadan was for this claim is of great importance, especially since it was the only two large Iranian cities that were less than 50 kilometers from the Iraqi border. Since the Iraqi leadership, contrary to the flow of battle already announced in the successful conquest of Baghdad a few days after the attack, the pressure on the army grew actually capture the city.
Battle Record
On September 22, the Iraqi artillery started from the west bank of the Shatt al-Arab with the shelling of the areas east of the river. On the morning of the following day one of the Iraqi Army Division crossed the Shatt al-Arab, reaching on 25 September without much of a fight the northwestern outskirts Chorramschahrs. The Iranians began the evacuation of the civilian population. They left behind along with the military only voluntary defender, mostly Pasdaran and Basij -e Mostaz'afin, as well as hospital staff and security forces.
The Iraqi artillery fire on Khorramshahr was reinforced on 26 September and continued until September 28. Up to this point, the Iranian Resistance in the reply of artillery fire and occasional air attacks against Iraqi gain and replenishment efforts on the Shatt al-Arab was. On the night of September 30, Iraqi ground forces for the first time attempted to take the city. Special forces invaded simultaneously walking on the land and in small boats across the river at various points into the city center and were told in countless house fighting big losses, so that they were forced to cancel the offensive after they controlled the northern part of the city.
On 1 October, the Iranian defenders of the city were by helicopter a troop increase of about 2,000 men. The following days were marked by bloody battles. The Iraqi army, outnumbered, moved further into the city, but met fierce resistance in many places. There were numerous small retaliation the Iranians, who also concentrated artillery fire on Iraqi tanks MOVED. The losses on both sides were high and on October 6 the port of the city was in the hands of Iraqis who were now also supported by their air force MiGs. By 10 October, the fighting shifted more and more to the city center.
On October 12, the Iraqis began an offensive against the bridge over the Karun in the east of the city. The bridge was the main link to Abadan and was defended by Iranian resistance fighters and some tanks. The fighting around the bridge lasted four days and ended in a withdrawal of the Iranians. Between 16 and 24 October eliminated Iraqi soldiers the rest of Iranians on the west side of the bridge. End of October, Khorramshahr was completely in Iraqi hands. The remaining Iranians retreated to Abadan and the Iraqi people began to prepare the siege of Abadan. Khorramshahr stayed until the Iranian recapture 1982 under Iraqi control.