Operation Dawn-4
| Operation Dawn 4 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Iran-Iraq War — Northern Front | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Iraq
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 Iran Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 108 infantry battalions, 7 armored battalions, 1 mechanized battalion, 25 commando battalions, 8 Republican Guard battalions, 7 artillery battalions |
Iran: |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
18,000 killed and wounded, 785 captured Other sources: 10 aircraft, 1 helicopter, 90+ tanks and APCs, 200 vehicles destroyed |
5,000 | ||||||||
Iran:
IRGC:
47 infantry battalions, 4 armored battalions, 4 mechanized battalion, 3 artillery battalions
Army:
17 infantry battalions, 8 artillery battalions
PUK:
18,000 killed and wounded, 785 captured
35 tanks and APCs, 100 vehicles, 3 aircraft, 3 helicopters, 70 equipment, 32 artillery pieces destroyed
8 tanks and APCs, 315 vehicles, 157 equipment captured
200 Iranian prisoners of war were released
Other sources: 10 aircraft, 1 helicopter, 90+ tanks and APCs, 200 vehicles destroyed
Operation Dawn 4 (Persian: عملیات والفجر 4) was an Iranian operation of the Iran–Iraq War launched in 1983. At the end of the operation Iran had captured a small amount of territory from the Iraqis.
Units of Iraq's First Army Corps spent two months in their trenches waiting for the Iranians to attack. The offensive came on 19 October 1983 as the Iranians and Peshmerga guerrillas of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took 250 square miles (650 km2) of territory. This included a number of Kurdish villages and exerted a significant amount of pressure on Penjwin.
Saddam Hussein responded with a counterattack, using the Iraqi Republican Guard and poison gas. However, they failed to dislodge the Iranians, who were dug-in and reinforced by Kurdish fighters.
The focus of the fourth Dawn operation in September 1983 was the northern sector in Iranian Kurdistan. Three Iranian regular divisions, the Revolutionary Guard, and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) elements amassed in Marivan and Sardasht in a move to threaten the major Iraqi city Suleimaniyah. Iran's strategy was to press Kurdish tribes to occupy the Banjuin Valley, which was within 45 km (28 mi) of Suleimaniyah and 140 km (87 mi) from the oilfields of Kirkuk. To stem the tide, Iraq deployed Mi-8 attack helicopters equipped with chemical weapons and executed 120 sorties against the Iranian force, which stopped them 15 km (9.3 mi) into Iraqi territory. 5,000 Iranians and 2,500 Iraqis died.
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Wikipedia