Iran Reports Gains on 2 Fronts; Not ‘One Inch,’ Iraq Says

Iran said its forces made territorial gains against Iraq on two fronts Thursday, but the Baghdad regime said it has not relinquished “even one inch” of land to the invaders.

Communiques issued by the two sides, monitored in Cyprus, indicated that fierce fighting is still taking place, a week after Iran launched a major offensive in the Persian Gulf War. There appeared to be general agreement that several thousand troops have been killed in the latest fighting, although Western analysts have dismissed the extravagant casualty claims made in the flurry of war communiques.

The main fighting, located in the southern sector, appeared to center on Fish Lake, about six miles southeast of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

‘Pressing Toward Basra’

Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, said in an early morning report Thursday that Fish Lake and its surroundings have been captured by Iranian troops and “the Islamic forces are pressing towards Basra, several kilometers west of Fish Lake.”

Iraq, on the other hand, claimed to have cleared Iranian troops out of areas south and east of Fish Lake.

A war communique transmitted by the official Iraqi News Agency said the invaders have suffered “immense losses” in men and equipment.

It was not possible to verify the claims of either side, since foreign reporters are rarely allowed into the war zone.

Diplomatic observers in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, reported that although fighting continued, the situation on both fronts appeared fairly static. The Iranians were well entrenched on an island in the flooded marshland around Fish Lake, the observers said.

Heavy Shelling of Island

However, they added, Iraqi forces have been heavily shelling the island position. Most military analysts in Baghdad expressed the belief that the invaders will eventually be routed.

The lake is a man-made water barrier set up by the Iraqis in 1982 to be easily flooded and protect against invasions by Iranian troops.

A network of dikes straddles the Shatt al Arab waterway, which forms part of the border between the two countries. When the region is flooded, it is hard to pinpoint the location of the fighting.

To the north, in the central sector of the war zone, where Iranian forces opened a second front Wednesday, the Iranian news agency said two more strategic heights were captured by advancing Iranian troops.

5 Counterattacks Repulsed

According to the agency, five Iraqi counterattacks have been repulsed in the area, and more than 500 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

The Iranians are now “consolidating their positions in the region,” an earlier dispatch said.

On the Iraqi side, the Baghdad military command said that it has repulsed several Iranian attacks in the central sector, which lies along the border only about 70 miles from Baghdad. Two brigades of Iranian troops were “annihilated,” the Iraqi News Agency said.

On Wednesday, Iran said its forces had recaptured 14 strategic hills seized by Iran early in the war. A military spokesman in Baghdad labeled the assertion false.

Poorly Trained Volunteers

Western military analysts believe that Iran is using mainly regular army troops in the central sector of the battlefront while primarily throwing paramilitary Revolutionary Guards and poorly trained volunteers into the southern battle zone. The strategy apparently is aimed at weakening the Iraqis by attacking at as many points as possible. The Iranians were said to have more than 650,000 men at the front when the fighting began last week.

Iran has code-named operations on the second front as Karbala 6, after an Iraqi site venerated by Shia Muslims, while the attack launched in the south last Friday was called Karbala 5.

The Iranians tend to reserve the Karbala label for major offensives. However, analysts are divided as to whether the current fighting represents the long-awaited Iranian “final offensive” promised before the end of the Iranian new year in March.

Iranian Towns Bombed

In the air war, Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian towns of Esfahan, Qom and Gilan-e Gharb. The Iranian news agency said five people, mostly women and children, were killed in Esfahan when a bomb hit a bus shelter.

Iraq reported three civilians wounded when Iranian artillery shelled Basra on Thursday. Iran’s assertion that its forces were heading toward Basra marked the first confirmation by Iran that the city was the offensive’s target.

Western military analysts have expected increased shelling of Basra as one direct result of the latest offensive, since the Iranians have been able to move their big guns much closer to the port city.

Withstanding Onslaught

But in both the central and southern sectors, the Iraqi defensive lines appear to be withstanding the Iranian onslaught without significant loss of ground.

And one resident of Basra, reached by telephone from Baghdad, said the city was only sporadically shelled by Iranian artillery Thursday.

Some observers suggested that if the Iranians are easing up on their drive on Basra, it might mean that they are preparing to call off the southern offensive.

As in Iran, the population of Basra is primarily Shia Muslim, and the Iranians have been hoping to capture the city and declare “an Islamic republic” in the region with Basra as its capital.