page_title: Iraqi invasion of Iran
section_title: Southern Front
hierarchical_section_title: Iraqi invasion of Iran / Operation / Ground Invasion / Southern Front
caption_attribution_description: English: Locator map of Khuzestan Province — western Iran.
context_page_description: The Iraqi Invasion of Iran was launched on 22 September and lasted until 7 December 1980. The invasion stalled in the face of Iranian resistance, but not before Iraq captured more than 15,000 km² of Iran's territory. This invasion led to eight years of war between Iran and Iraq.
  After President of Iran Abolhassan Banisadr declared Iran was not following the 1975 Algiers Agreement and neither had Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, on 17 September Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced that Iraq abrogated the 1975 Algiers Agreement and intended to exercise full sovereignty over the disputed Shatt al-Arab river in response to Iranian violations of the treaty. On 22 September, Iraqi aircraft bombarded ten airfields in Iran to cripple the Iranian air force on the ground. Although this attack failed, the next day Iraqi forces crossed the border in strength and advanced into Iran in three simultaneous thrusts along a front of some 400 miles. Of Iraq's six divisions that were invading by ground, four were sent to Khuzestan Province, which was located near the border's southern end, to cut off the Shatt al-Arab from the rest of Iran and to establish a territorial security zone.
context_section_description: Two of the four Iraqi divisions which invaded Khuzestan, one mechanised and one armoured, operated near the southern end and began a siege of the strategically important port cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr. The other two divisions, both armoured, secured the territory bounded by the cities of Khorramshahr, Ahvaz, Susangerd, and Musian.
  Iraqi hopes of an uprising by the ethnic Arabs of Khuzestan failed to materialise, as most of the ethnic Arabs remained loyal to Iran. The Iraqi troops advancing into Iran in 1980 were described by Patrick Brogan as "badly led and lacking in offensive spirit". The first known chemical weapons attack by Iraq on Iran probably took place during the fighting around Susangerd.
caption: Location of Khūzestān Province in Iran
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