Iran–Iraq War

Iran–Iraq War
	Part of the Cold War, aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, Iran–Saudi and Iraq–Syria proxy conflicts
	Top-left to bottom-right: An Iranian child soldier on the frontlines; An Iranian soldier in a trench wearing a gas mask to guard against Iraqi chemical attacks; The USS Stark listing to port after being struck by an Iraqi Exocet missile; Burned-out vehicles in the aftermath of Operation Mersad; Iraqi prisoners of war after the recapture of Khorramshahr by Iranian forces; The 152 mm gun-howitzer D-20 being used by the Iranian Army;
Date	22 September 1980 – 20 August 1988; (7 years, 10 months, 4 weeks and 1 day)
Location	Iran; Iraq;
Result	Inconclusive
Territorial; changes	Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Iran	Iraq
KDP; PUK; ISCI; Islamic Dawa Party; Hezbollah; Shia volunteers	DRFLA; MEK; NCRI; PDKI; Salvation Force; Arab volunteers
Commanders and leaders
Ruhollah Khomeini; Akbar Rafsanjani; Ali Khamenei; Mir-Hossein Mousavi;	Saddam Hussein; Adnan Khayr Allah; Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri; Tariq Aziz;
Units involved
See order of battle	See order of battle
Strength
Start of war: ; 110,000–215,000 soldiers More: 1,700–2,100 tanks, ; (500–1,150 operable) ; 1,000–1,900 armoured vehicles, ; (1,300 operable) ; 300–1,100 artillery pieces, ; 421–485 fighter-bombers, ; (200–205 fully operational) ; 750–835 helicopters ; (240 fully operational) ; ; In 1982: ; 350,000 soldiers, ; 700 tanks, ; 2,700 armoured vehicles, ; 400 artillery pieces, ; 350 aircraft, ; 700 helicopters ; ; In 1988: ; 600,000–850,000 soldiers, ; 1,500+ tanks, ; 800–1,400 armoured vehicles, ; 600–900 heavy artillery pieces, ; 60–80 fighter-bombers, ; 70–90 helicopters KDP: 45,000 Peshmerga (1986–88); PUK: 12,000 Peshmerga (1986–88) ;	Start of war: ; 200,000–210,000 soldiers More: 1,750–2,800 tanks, ; 2,350–4,000 APCs, ; 1,350–1,400 artillery pieces, ; 295–380 fighter-bombers, ; 300–350 helicopters ; ; In 1982: ; 175,000 soldiers, ; 1,200 tanks, ; 2,300 armoured vehicles, ; 400 artillery pieces, ; 450 aircraft, ; 180 helicopters ; ; In 1988: ; 800,000–1,500,000 soldiers, ; 3,400–5,000 tanks, ; 4,500–10,000 APCs, ; 2,300–12,000 artillery pieces, ; 360–900 fighter-bombers, ; 140–1,000 helicopters KDPI: 30,000 Peshmerga (1980–83); MEK: 15,000 fighters (1981–83, 87–88) ;
Casualties and losses
Military dead: ; 200,000–600,000 ; More: 123,220–160,000 KIA, ; 60,711 MIA ; (Iranian claim) ; 800,000 killed ; (Iraqi claim) ; ; 320,000–500,000 WIA ; 40,000–42,875 POW ; 11,000–16,000 civilian dead ; ; Economic loss: ; $627 billion ;	Military dead: ; 105,000–500,000 ; More: 400,000 WIA ; 70,000 POW ; ; Economic loss: ; $561 billion ;
	Civilian dead: 100,000+; Total dead:; 450,000–500,000

The Iran–Iraq War began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980. After eight years of conflict, both countries accepted a ceasefire deal brokered by the United Nations, which became effective in August 1988. The war caused around 500,000 deaths (excluding numbers from the related Anfal campaign), making it the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.

In starting the war, the Iraqi government—led by President Saddam Hussein—primarily wanted to prevent Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's leader following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, from exporting Iran's new state ideology to Iraq. Iraq also feared that Iran, being a theocratic state mostly composed of Shia Muslims, would rally Iraq's Shia majority against the Sunni Muslim-controlled Baʽathist government. Iraq also wished to replace Iran as the main national power in the Persian Gulf. The war followed a long-running history of border disputes between the two states, as a result of which Iraq planned to retake the eastern bank of the Shatt al-Arab river that it had ceded to Iran in the 1975 Algiers Agreement.

The conflict involved large-scale trench warfare, and deliberate attacks on civilians, including Iraqi chemical attacks. At the start of the war, Iraq expected a decisive victory, considering Iran's post-revolutionary chaos, but their invasion had stalled by December 1980. The Iranian military then gained momentum, and recaptured all their territory by June 1982. Having pushed Iraqi forces back to the pre-war borders, Iran launched an invasion of Iraq, which created a five-year offensive. In mid-1988, Iraq launched a series of counter-offensives that created the military stalemate present at the war's end.

Iraq was aided by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, and most Arab countries. Iran was aided by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, South Yemen, Pakistan, Cuba, and Israel. Meanwhile, Iraqi support for Arab separatists in Iran increased.

After years of military and economic losses, decreasing morale, intensifying Iran–U.S. relations, and little international action against Iraqi attacks on Iranian civilians, Iran agreed to a ceasefire with Iraq under United Nations Security Council Resolution 598. The war did not create any permanent border changes, and neither countries received war reparations afterwards. Both sides suffered financially. They continued engaging in low-level military conflict until relations improved following Hussein's overthrow in 2003.