page_title: Military operations of the Iran–Iraq War
section_title: Operation Undeniable Victory
hierarchical_section_title: Military operations of the Iran–Iraq War / 1982: Iraqi retreat, Iranian offensive / Operation Undeniable Victory
caption_attribution_description: Iranian posing on an Iraqi T-62 tank in Khorramshahr, Khuzestan in Iran, just across the border from Iraq.
context_page_description: Military operations of the Iran–Iraq War are events that stretched over the period of Iran–Iraq War from 22 September 1980 to end of the war. Most of operations occurred in Kermanshah, Ilam, and Khuzestan.
context_section_description: Iran's next major offensive, led by then Colonel Ali Sayad Shirazi, was Operation Fath-ol-Mobeen (Undeniable Victory). On 22 March 1982, Iran launched an attack which took the Iraqi forces by surprise: using Chinook helicopters, they landed behind Iraqi lines, silenced their artillery, and captured an Iraqi headquarters. The Iranian Basij then launched "human wave" attacks, consisting of 1,000 fighters per wave. Though they took heavy losses, they eventually broke through Iraqi lines.
  The Revolutionary Guard and regular army followed up by surrounding the Iraqi 9th and 10th Armoured and 1st Mechanised divisions that had camped close to the Iranian town of Shush. The Iraqis launched a counter-attack using their 12th Armoured division to break the encirclement and rescue the surrounded divisions. Iraqi tanks came under attack by 95 Iranian F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger fighter jets, destroying much of the division.
  Operation Undeniable Victory was an Iranian victory; Iraqi forces were driven away from Shush, Dezful and Ahvaz. The Iranian armed forces destroyed 320–400 Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles in a costly success. In just the first day of the battle, the Iranians lost 196 tanks. By this time, most of the Khuzestan province had been recaptured.
caption: Iraqi T-62 tank wreckage in Khuzestan province, Iran
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