Iran-Iraq War (1987): US reflagging · 480
[479] [read-iran-iraq-17-79] Line 480 of this record. forces took Khorramshahr and failed to take a knockout; Iranian resistance and mobilisation surprised Baghdad. s. The tanker war drew in US reflagging of Kuwaiti ships (1987) and the 1988 shoot-down of Iran Air 655 -- a c and faced a choice: stop, or carry the war into Iraq. Khomeini's government chose to continue toward Basra and Saddam Hussei
Saddam Hussein read the 1979 Iranian Revolution as weakness. The 1975 Algiers Agreement on the Shatt was torn up. Iraqi forces took Khorramshahr and failed to take a knockout; Iranian resistance and mobilisation surprised Baghdad. Foreign states tilted: many Arab capitals and Western suppliers backed Iraq as a container of the revolution, while Iran was isolated.
By 1982 Iran had expelled most invaders and faced a choice: stop, or carry the war into Iraq. Khomeini's government chose to continue toward Basra and a political end in Baghdad that never came. Basra's approaches (including the 1986 Faw seizure) became the war's grinding southern hinge.
The "war of the cities" used missiles and air raids on Tehran, Baghdad and others. The tanker war drew in US reflagging of Kuwaiti ships (1987) and the 1988 shoot-down of Iran Air 655 -- a civilian airliner disaster inside the naval melee. Chemical attacks are documented; this page records them as crimes and facts, not as a method.
The timeline keeps year, place, and what moved. If “US reflagging” is the movement, the figure is 88 and the year is 1987.1987
Figures to keep
- Year of the action
- 1987
- Figure in the record
- 88
- Action
- Iran-Iraq War
- Line of the front
- US reflagging
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