Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 25)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 25)
- المحتوى
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Marathon to the Death
At the end of 1986, the ongoing
blood-sucking tragedy, known as the
Iran-Iraq war, entered a dangerous
phase manifested by Iran’s new offen-
sives: Kerbala-4, directed against the
Iraqi positions east of Basra, and
Kerbala-5 against fortified Iraqi posi-
tions west of Fish Lake, along the Dual
Canal and west of the Jasim River, also
east of Basra.
Iran’s Kerbala-4 offensive was
aborted in fierce fighting that lasted
over 36 hours. Then Iraq declared that
it had pushed back the Iranian offen-
sive and regained control of the
strategic Um Al Rasas island and three
other small islands in the Shatt Al Arab
waterway.
As it has been throughout six and a
half bloody years of war, the two sides
issued conflicting reports of casualties.
After the obvious failure of Kerbala-4,
Iran said it had been a «limited opera-
tion» and that «less than 6,000 soldiers
had participated in it,» in the words of
the spokesman for the Iranian war in-
formation center, who strongly denied
reports that tens of thousands of Ira-
nians had been killed. The Iraqi regime,
for its part, exaggerated the Iranian
casualty toll and the intensity of the
offensive.
However, Iran’s attempt to play
down the level of the offensive did not
hide the real goals it was seeking to
achieve, politically and militarily. The
Iranians’ success at the start of
Kerbala-4, in penetrating the massive
Iraqi defenses and occupying Um Al
Rasas and other islands, proves the
broad scope of the operation which
demanded huge numbers of soldiers
and weaponry - not 6,000 soldiers.
Iran’s attempt to station its troops on
the western bank of the Shatt Al Arab
waterway indicates the strategic nature
of Kerbala-4. Had the operation been
successful, it would have paved the way
for the Iranians to break through the
Iraqi defense lines around Basra, oc-
cupy the city, cut Iraq in two, and
ultimately isolate it from the Gulf
states.
The Iraq-Iran War
Thus it is clear that Kerbala-4 had
strategic objectives. This was evidenced
by Iranian officials’ statements just
48 hours before the offensive began.
Iranian President Ali Khamenei said
‘that «the Iranian forces are concluding
preparations for the final and decisive
attack»!
On the other hand, the Iraqi regime’s
attempt to exaggerate the intensity and
bulk of the Iranian offensive was aimed
at convincing the Gulf states that Iraq is
capable of aborting Iranian attacks.
Thus, the Iraqi regime sought to
eliminate the fears of the Gulf states as
a result of the growing Iranian force,
and to abort any attempts on their part
to reestablish relations with Iran. Such
attempts had been apparent during the
latest OPEC meeting.
The Iraqi exaggerations may also
have been a final attempt to convince
the Saudi government, which was paid
a sudden visit by Saddam Hussein, to
continue its support of the Iraqi regime
against Iran, in particular after the
disclosure of the Saudi role in ‘Iran/
contragate’.
Two weeks after the failure of the
Kerbala-4 offensive, Iran staged
another Kerbala, this time no. 5, on
January 8th, in a three-pronged attack
east of Basra. A Pasadaran (Revolu-
tionary Guards) commander hinted
that «Iran’s Kerbala-5 attack was made
from the northeast through flooded
areas, using small boats and light pon-
toon bridges» (Financial Times,
January 27th). «A feature of the latest
offensive,» reported the Financial
Times, was that Iran’s airforce «has
been in evidence.» The Iranians in-
filtrated Iraqi territories, controlling
more than four kilometers, while some
units managed to infiltrate into areas
less than 15 kilometers away from
Basra, the second largest city in Iraq.
However, Iran still has to overcome
Iraqi defense obstacles before it can
reach the outskirts of Basra.
By most accounts, Kerbala-5 has
already cost the Iranians some 30,000
dead and wounded, and the Iraqis
about 10,000. These tragic casualty
figures, added to previous ones, bring
the total of dead, wounded and han-
dicapped to the hundreds of thousands,
as a result of this senseless and ‘Israel-
the-victor’ war. As long as cannon
fodder is available on both sides, the
war will go on.
On February Ist, Iraq said that its
forces had pushed back Iranian troops
at Fish Lake and at the Jasim River on
the southern front of the war, reporting
as usual - tremendous Iranian
casualties. At the same time, Iraqi air
raids against Iranian cities, and Iran’s
surface-to-surface missiles against
Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, add to the
human tragedy of this pointless war.
Regardless of whether or not Iraq is
successful in aborting this new Iranian
offensive, Iranian leaders still insist
that Kerbala-S does not mark the
beginning of the final offensive. At the
Map 1
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= - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 22
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