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Operation Before the Dawn
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Operation Before the Dawn
Operation Before the Dawn was an offensive operation launched by Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in 1983 around the Amarah area 200 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. It was carried out under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along with the support of the regular army, during the operation, Iran suffered heavy casualties due to weak air support and heavy Iraqi artillery fire and aerial bombing.
The Iranians originally planned the offensive to mark the fourth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. The main objectives were to drive enemy forces from Iranian soil, seize Iraqi territory in the Amarah area, and move on to the city. Seizure of the city of Amarah would give Iran the upper hand in disrupting troop and supply movements from Baghdad to Basra.
U.S. Intelligence reported that both sides had over 100,000 soldiers poised for battle. The Iranian forces consisted of mostly 'last reserve' Pasdaran and Basij volunteers backed by two divisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. Iraqi forces consisted mostly of conscript infantry backed by Republican Guard tank brigades. In addition, the Iraqis also held three lines of trenches which formed a semicircle around Amarah.
The terrain of the battleground added to Iran's difficulty. The area around Amarah rested in an area of sand hills and marshes of which created an open plain. To this affect, Iraqi trenches were strategically positioned from the sand hills down to the tip of the marshes.
Regardless, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani further boasted:
The people expect this offensive to be the final military operation that will determine the destiny of the region.
Operation Fajr al-Nasr (Before the Dawn/Dawn of Victory), launched on 6 February 1983, and it saw the Iranian shift of focus from the southern to the central and northern sectors. Iran, using 200,000 "last reserve" Revolutionary Guard troops, attacked along a 40 kilometres (25 mi) stretch near Al Amarah, Iraq about 200 kilometres (120 mi) southeast of Baghdad. One armoured division proceeded to Sumar in the central zone as a diversion to mask seven reserve infantry divisions that went from the southern sector to the central city of Dezful. The Iraqis knew about this concentration of forces and knew that an inevitable mass human wave assault would occur in the central zone, yet did nothing to disrupt what would be Operation Before the Dawn, which began in February 1983.[64] This was Iran's long-awaited plan to take the war inside Iraq on a grand scale. The Iranians wanted to penetrate and capture the cities of al-Shabeeb and al-Amarah, and to reach the highways linking Baghdad down to Amarah and further down to Basra. In the south, a massive Iranian force of two infantry and two armoured divisions, three border guard regiments, an airborne regiment, a Basij division, and two artillery battalions attempted to isolate Basra from the rest of Iraq.[64]
Facing the Iranians was the Iraqi 4th Corps, which was made up of two infantry divisions, one mechanized division, and two armoured divisions. The al-Shabeeb assault was stalled by 60 kilometers of hilly escarpments, forests and river torrents blanketing the way to Amarah. Once the Iranians finally arrived near Amarah, Iraqi air force fighters thwarted Iranian close air support, but the Iraqi counter-attack was also hindered and the various attacks and counter-attacks regressed into entrenchment and artillery duels. The Iranians dug themselves in along the entire front lines, from north to south, and although Iraq countered the assault on al-Shabeeb, it did not result in Iraq's tactical advantage as these thousands of entrenched Iranian forces now concentrated artillery fire on Basra, Khanaqhin, and Mandali.[64]
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Operation Before the Dawn
Operation Before the Dawn was an offensive operation launched by Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in 1983 around the Amarah area 200 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. It was carried out under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along with the support of the regular army, during the operation, Iran suffered heavy casualties due to weak air support and heavy Iraqi artillery fire and aerial bombing.
The Iranians originally planned the offensive to mark the fourth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. The main objectives were to drive enemy forces from Iranian soil, seize Iraqi territory in the Amarah area, and move on to the city. Seizure of the city of Amarah would give Iran the upper hand in disrupting troop and supply movements from Baghdad to Basra.
U.S. Intelligence reported that both sides had over 100,000 soldiers poised for battle. The Iranian forces consisted of mostly 'last reserve' Pasdaran and Basij volunteers backed by two divisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. Iraqi forces consisted mostly of conscript infantry backed by Republican Guard tank brigades. In addition, the Iraqis also held three lines of trenches which formed a semicircle around Amarah.
The terrain of the battleground added to Iran's difficulty. The area around Amarah rested in an area of sand hills and marshes of which created an open plain. To this affect, Iraqi trenches were strategically positioned from the sand hills down to the tip of the marshes.
Regardless, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani further boasted:
The people expect this offensive to be the final military operation that will determine the destiny of the region.
Operation Fajr al-Nasr (Before the Dawn/Dawn of Victory), launched on 6 February 1983, and it saw the Iranian shift of focus from the southern to the central and northern sectors. Iran, using 200,000 "last reserve" Revolutionary Guard troops, attacked along a 40 kilometres (25 mi) stretch near Al Amarah, Iraq about 200 kilometres (120 mi) southeast of Baghdad. One armoured division proceeded to Sumar in the central zone as a diversion to mask seven reserve infantry divisions that went from the southern sector to the central city of Dezful. The Iraqis knew about this concentration of forces and knew that an inevitable mass human wave assault would occur in the central zone, yet did nothing to disrupt what would be Operation Before the Dawn, which began in February 1983.[64] This was Iran's long-awaited plan to take the war inside Iraq on a grand scale. The Iranians wanted to penetrate and capture the cities of al-Shabeeb and al-Amarah, and to reach the highways linking Baghdad down to Amarah and further down to Basra. In the south, a massive Iranian force of two infantry and two armoured divisions, three border guard regiments, an airborne regiment, a Basij division, and two artillery battalions attempted to isolate Basra from the rest of Iraq.[64]
Facing the Iranians was the Iraqi 4th Corps, which was made up of two infantry divisions, one mechanized division, and two armoured divisions. The al-Shabeeb assault was stalled by 60 kilometers of hilly escarpments, forests and river torrents blanketing the way to Amarah. Once the Iranians finally arrived near Amarah, Iraqi air force fighters thwarted Iranian close air support, but the Iraqi counter-attack was also hindered and the various attacks and counter-attacks regressed into entrenchment and artillery duels. The Iranians dug themselves in along the entire front lines, from north to south, and although Iraq countered the assault on al-Shabeeb, it did not result in Iraq's tactical advantage as these thousands of entrenched Iranian forces now concentrated artillery fire on Basra, Khanaqhin, and Mandali.[64]