The Iran-Iraq War began
On this day · 22 September 1980
Iraqi jets and tanks swept into Iran, opening one of the 20th century's longest and bloodiest conventional wars.
On September 22, 1980, Iraqi armed forces invaded western Iran along the two countries’ shared border, opening the Iran-Iraq War. The Iraqi Air Force opened with surprise strikes on Iranian airfields, hoping to cripple Iran’s air force on the ground; a broad ground assault into the oil-rich province of Khuzestan followed.
Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, bet on a quick, limited campaign against a neighbor still reeling from its 1979 revolution. The gamble failed. Iranian resistance stiffened, the front bogged down, and the conflict ground on for nearly eight years.
It became a war of attrition marked by trench fighting, missile attacks on cities, and the use of chemical weapons. Estimates of the dead range from around 500,000 to well over a million across both sides.
Saddam expected a sprint and got a marathon through barbed wire.
A United Nations-brokered ceasefire finally took hold in August 1988, leaving borders essentially unchanged.
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