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Iraq / History / Iran-Iraq War

In early 1974 heavy fighting erupted in northern Iraq between government forces and Kurdish nationalists, who rejected as inadequate a new Kurdish autonomy law based on a 1970 agreement. The Kurds, led by Mustafa al-Barzani, received arms and other supplies from Iran. After Iraq agreed in early 1975 to make major concessions to Iran in settling their border disputes, Iran halted aid to the Kurds, and the revolt was dealt a severe blow. In July 1979 President Bakr was succeeded by General Saddam Hussein at-takriti, a Sunni Muslim and fellow member of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, who immediately rounded up dozens of officials on charges of treason. Tension between the Iraqi government and the revolutionary regime in Iran increased during 1979, when unrest among Iranian Kurds spilled over into Iraq. Sectarian religious animosities exacerbated the conflict. In September 1980 Iraq declared its 1975 agreement with Iran, which Hussein had negotiated, null and void and claimed authority over the entire disputed Shatt al Arab estuary. The quarrel flared into a full-scale war. Iraq quickly overran a large part of the Arab-populated province of Khuzestan (Khuzistan) in Iran and destroyed the Abadan refinery.

In June 1981 a surprise air attack by Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad. The Israelis charged that the reactor was intended to develop nuclear weapons for use against them. A cease-fire to the Iran-Iraq war was declared in August 1988.

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