Iran Resumes Offensive but Suffers ‘Immense’ Losses, Iraq Says

Iran claimed Monday that its Revolutionary Guards captured more land in a drive in southern Iraq, killing or wounding more than 2,500 Iraqis. Iraq said it repulsed the thrust, “inflicting immense losses.”

Iraq also said the Iranians violated a cease-fire involving attacks on cities by shelling the embattled port of Basra. Iraq has warned that in retaliation, its warplanes might resume their raids on Iranian cities.

The Iraqis said they beat back an Iranian ground attack aimed at breaching defense lines along the Jassim River east of Basra.

Bodies on Battlefield

The official Iraqi News Agency said Baghdad’s military command announced that the “battlefield was littered with the bodies of thousands of Iranians” killed in artillery and air strikes throughout the day.

Accounts from INA and from Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency were monitored in Nicosia. The two sides have been at war since September, 1980.

Iran said the overnight assault, which began late Sunday, was a continuation of the major offensive launched Jan. 9.

“Iran’s combatants are now fortifying their positions, and their heavy fire has pinned down Iraqi troops in their positions” on the western bank of the Jassim, IRNA said.

Tanks Destroyed

IRNA said that the Iranians, supported by artillery and armor, destroyed many Iraqi tanks while fighter-bombers pounded Iraqi positions.

It did not say how much Iraqi territory was taken.

Iraq said its aircraft flew 177 combat missions to blunt the Iranian thrust and knocked out three batteries of U.S.-made Hawk anti-aircraft missiles around the Iranian base area of Khorramshahr.

It said helicopter gunships flew another 132 missions and with the fighter-bombers “destroyed troop concentrations, weapons and equipment.”

Plane Shot Down

IRNA reported one Iraqi plane shot down, raising to 79 the number Iran claims to have destroyed since Jan. 9. Iran has admitted losing about a dozen planes, but Western military sources believe the number may be as high as 40.

It was the fiercest fighting reported in the Basra sector in two weeks. The Iranian push was apparently stalled by Iraq’s heavily fortified main defense line east of Basra.