so after the failure of iran in karbala 2, 3 iran launched karbala 4 in order to capture some iraqi land to send a political message to the kuwait summit (islamic summit conference) . however this operation also ended in failure for iran as iranians gave 2 time more casualties .
The battle itself was planned and eventually executed by
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The operation would be launched under cover of darkness in order to gain a foothold along the Arvand Rūd/Shatt-al-Arab waterway. Once across, the Iranian forces would go on the offensive and eventually move onto the port city of
Basra. The attack would be launched towards the Umm al-Rasas Island in the Shatt al Arab. It most likely was meant as a diversionary attack before the upcoming
Operation Karbala-5 (although it may have been called that only after it failed). It would attack from Umm al Rasas island to other islands and roads to help create a broad encirclement of Basra. It may have been rushed ahead to intimidate the
Islamic Summit Conference meeting in then Iraqi ally
Kuwait.
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Operation Karbala-5 was an offensive carried out by
Iran in an effort to capture the
Iraqi port city of
Basra in early 1987. This battle, known for its extensive casualties and ferocious conditions, was the biggest battle of the war and proved to be the beginning of the end of the
Iran-Iraq War.
aftermath :
Iran continued its shelling of Basra for the remainder of February, at one point setting fire to a petrochemical plant which released toxic gas south of the city. But it was clear by the end of the month that Iran had officially aborted the operation.
It was reported by March that the Iraqis lost 20,000 troops and 45 aircraft, while the Iranians lost 65,000 troops. Of the most experienced Pasdaran recruited to lead the campaign, roughly a quarter of them were killed. Basra’s former population of one million decreased to 100,000, the refugees having fled north to Baghdad. Nearly every building along the eastern end of the city was damaged or destroyed.
Despite the fact the battle was considered to be over, it would remain in a quasi-
siege until
Operation Tawakalna ala Allah launched by Iraq in April 1988. The Iranians would bombard the city, while the Iraqis would sit behind their defensive lines. With the exception of Operation Karbala-8 launched against the city in July 1987, the Iranians would launch no more large scale attacks against Basra (or anywhere else in Iraq for that matter).
After Operation Karbala-5, the Iranian military was effectively a weakened force, and did not launch large-scale offensives for the rest of the war. Much of the experienced Pasdaran were killed during the battles, in addition to Iranian morale being scarred.[70] The head of the armed forces Hashemi Rafsanjani announced during a
news conference to finally end the use of human wave attacks.[96]
Mohsen Rezaee, head of the Pasdaran (IRGC), announced that Iran would focus exlusively on limited attacks/infiltrations, while arming and supporting opposition groups inside of Iraq (such as the
Kurdish guerillas and
Badr Brigade). [75] While Iraq would be unable to truly defeat Iran and remained on the defensive until 1988, this loss, coupled with earlier ones and Iraq's 1988 offensives depleted Iran's manpower and economy, and convinced their leadership that the war was unwinnable, and accept the
UN Resolution 598 ceasefire.
Though the Iraqis forced the Iranian offensive back, it was still an embarrassment due to the fact that Iran came so close to the gates of Basra, and they themselves had taken severe losses. At one point, Saddam Hussein nearly faced mutiny from his generals, who demanded the freedom to conduct operations without political interference. The battle also served as a lesson for Western forces during
Operation Desert Storm. With the failure of the poorly trained and equipped
Iraqi Popular Army during the first assaults of the offensive, the Republican Guard did the most in repulsing the Iranians. This show of favoritism in Saddam's army would only prove futile in the future.
The effects of the operation were also felt in the Persian Gulf, with Iran and Iraq attacking foreign oil tankers doing business with both powers. A total of sixteen ships were hit in the first five weeks of 1987. Although Iran boasted that it would step up more attacks in the next year, no such actions materialized and Karbala 5 proved to be the last in a series of 'final offensives.' The war ended on August 20, 1988.
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the next after that is karbala 6 which ended in strategic iranian victory :
Operation Karbala-6 was an
Iranian operation during the
Iran-Iraq War to prevent
Iraq from rapidly transferring units to its defense lines at
Basra after
Iran had launched
Operation Karbala-5 to capture the city of
Basra.
Operation Karbala-6 involved 2 of the most powerful
divisions in
the Iranian army: the Army's 77th 'Khorasan" mechanized division, and the
Pasdaran’s 31st 'Ashoora' division. The 77th 'Khorasan" mechanized division was armed with
helicopter gunships, tanks, 106mm, 130mm and 230mm
artillery and the 31st 'Ashoora' division was armed with captured Iraqi tanks.
aftermath :
Eventually, while successful, the Iranian offensive petered out because it was not meant to be a breakthrough attack, and due to shortages of logistics, and Iraqi chemical weapons. The offensive, while successfully diverting much of Iraq's armor away from the battlefield in Basra, did not prevent the Iraqis from stopping the Iranian attack against the city.
