1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan

1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy
1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy
Part of Fourth Balochistan conflict
	Balochistan in Pakistan
Operational scope	Iraqi support for Baloch nationalist insurgents/militants; Iraqi assistance to Balochi insurgents with smuggling of covert Soviet weapons shipments;
Location	Islamabad, Pakistan; 33°44′01″N 73°07′39″E / 33.7335215°N 73.1273680°E
Planned by	Pakistan Intelligence Community
Target	Iraqi embassy
Date	Iraqi embassy, Islamabad, Pakistan (UTC+05:00 PKT)
Executed by	Pakistan Civil Armed Forces Pakistan Rangers; ; Pakistani law enforcement Islamabad Police; ; ;
Outcome	Pakistan discovered 300 Soviet-made machine guns with an excess of 50,000 rounds of ammunition and a large amount of funding intended for Baloch militants.; Deterioration of Iraq–Pakistan relations; Pakistani counter-insurgency; Pakistani support for Iran in the Iran–Iraq War;

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The 1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan was an armed infiltration carried out by Government of Pakistan in February 1973 at the embassy of Ba'athist Iraq in Islamabad. The raid, carried out by the Civil Armed Forces, including Pakistan Rangers and the Islamabad Police, was launched after the interception of information by Pakistani intelligence that uncovered large-scale covert Iraqi involvement in the supply of weapons and funds to militants waging an insurgency against Imperial State of Iran and Pakistan in the Balochistan region situated between the two countries.

Following the embassy raid, an abundance of funds and Soviet armaments from Iraq that were meant for Baloch insurgents were seized by Pakistani forces, and the Iraqi ambassador to Pakistan as well as the embassy's staff were immediately expelled from Pakistan and declared personae non gratae.

Pakistan's findings in the embassy raid heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq, which, in 1974, escalated into armed clashes over the Shatt al-Arab, a river that was formerly subject to a territorial dispute between the two nations that later served as one of the key factors that propelled them into a full-scale and protracted war in 1980 following the Iranian Revolution.

The event led to a severe deterioration in Iraq–Pakistan relations and contributed to Pakistan's heavy backing of Iran during the latter's eight-year-long war with Iraq.