Operation Ramadan

Operation Ramadan was an offensive in the Iran-Iraq War. It was launched by Iran in July 1982 near Basra and featured the use of human wave attacks in one of the largest land battles since World War II. The engagement was a part of the overall stalemate.

Prelude

By the middle of 1982, Iraq was mostly expelled from Iranian territory, having lost all the gains they made during the invasion in 1980. Saddam Hussein used the Israeli invasion of Lebanon as an excuse to seek an end to the war and send the Palestinians aid. Tehran rejected peace offers from Baghdad and began preparing to expand into Iraq.

Initially, some in Tehran rejected the idea of invasion, claiming that such a move would undermine Iran's moral standing and diminish the sympathy gained by Muslim countries as the result of Saddam's invasion. These individuals were backed by Iranian military officers. However, these voices were shut out by pro-war voices in Tehran, who claimed that Baghdad could be defeated with the use of zealous fighters and invoking anti-government sentiment amongst Iraq's Shia. At the time, the Iranian population experienced a euphoria of victory. Thus, plans for invasion included both the silencing of Iraqi artillery that was shelling civilian border towns, destroying the Iraqi Third Corps, and the seizure of the Shat al-Arab. Given that the first day of the operation coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, it was given the name as suited.

Preparations

Iraq suffered enormously from the...
Read More