History of Iraq 8 – the Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 1988)

The Iran–Iraq War began in September 1980 and ended in August 1988. In Iran, it is also called Holy Defense and Iraq sometimes refers to it as Saddam’s Qādisiyyah.

The war began with Iraq invading Iran by air and land. The aim was to replace Iran as the dominant state at the Persian Gulf. The progress was limited despite of the revolutionary chaos in Iran and within several months, the Iranians regained all lost territory.

The following years after 1982 , Iran was the offensive part. Calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations remained unheard and the fighting continued until 20 August 1988. The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage.

Half a million Iraqis and Iranians are believed to have died in the war, injured and wounded even exceed this number. The Aftermath brought neither reparations nor change in borders. During this war, chemical weapons had been extensively used. This and the resulting extreme cost in lives, made the Iran-Iraq War on of the deadliest wars since World War II.

The financial loss was also enormous, at the time exceeding US$600 billion for each country. Oil exports were disrupted. Especially Iraq had enormous depts which made the country the most indebted in the world by the end of Saddam’s rule. This unsustainable economic situation compelled the new Iraqi government to request the forgiveness of a considerable portion of loans incurred during Iran Iraq war.

Much of the oil industry in both countries was damaged in air raids. Iran’s production capacity has yet to recover from the damages of the war. Prisoners taken by both countries were not released until 10 years after the end of the war. The Iraqi government built various monuments to commemorate, including the Hands of Victory and the Al-Shaheed Monument in Baghdad.