Iran-Iraq War
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The Iran-Iraq War was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988. It was commonly called the Persian Gulf War until Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The Iraq-Kuwait war, which the United States entered, later was called the Persian Gulf War or the Gulf War.
The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September, 1980, after a long history of border disputes and demands for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. Iraqi forces did well at the beginning of the war, but before long they were stopped and forced out of Iran. The war continued for years, and neither side gained much ground. Despite several calls for an end to the fighting by the United Nations Security Council, the two countries fought until 20 August, 1988; the last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003. The war changed politics in the Middle East and world wide.
Iran-Iraq War is also noted for Iraq's use of chemical weapons and biological weapons against Iranian troops and civilians. The role of the United States in the war was important too. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, the United States supplied Mohammad Reza Pahlavi militarily and politically. Later on (especially between 1983 and 1988) the United States sold weapons to the Iraqis. This move was largely due to America's interest in containing the revolutionary Ayatollah Khomeini. In summary the Iranians and Iraqis were both fighting each other with arms from the United States.
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