The Iran-Iraq War Kills Hundreds of Thousands
Iraq gambles on a quick war against a weakened Iran; it lasts nearly eight years
Quick facts
- War began
- September 22, 1980
- War ended
- August 20, 1988
- Estimated deaths
- c. 500,000 (both sides)
- Iranians exposed to chemical weapons
- c. 100,000
What happened
On September 22, 1980, Iraqi forces launched air strikes on Iranian air bases and followed with a ground invasion of the oil-producing border region of Khuzestan, seeking to overturn 1975 border agreements and exploit Iran's military weakness following its revolution. Rather than the quick victory Saddam Hussein anticipated, the war dragged on for nearly eight years, formally ending on August 20, 1988, with total casualty estimates ranging as high as 1 to 2 million and roughly 500,000 killed on both sides combined. Starting in 1984, Iraq began using chemical weapons against Iranian forces and civilians, initially mustard gas and later nerve agents including tabun and sarin, in what became the first verified combat use of nerve agents in history; an estimated 100,000 Iranians were exposed to Iraqi chemical weapons over the course of the war.
Why it matters
The Iran-Iraq War was the longest conventional war of the 20th century and one of its deadliest, and it forced Iran's newly established Islamic Republic to fight for its survival within a year of the revolution, hardening the new government's institutions and its narrative of righteous resistance against outside aggression. The chemical weapons attacks, documented by UN investigative missions sent to Iran during the war itself, left tens of thousands of Iranian survivors with lasting injuries still being treated decades later.
How we know
The war's outbreak, casualty estimates, and chemical weapons use are documented in contemporary news reporting and confirmed by declassified US and Iraqi records analyzed by the Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project, alongside UN chemical weapons investigation reports from the 1980s.
Sources
- HISTORY (A&E Television Networks). Iran-Iraq War: Summary, Timeline & Legacy · Reputable sourcehistory.com · The domain "history.com" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Wilson Center. "We Attacked Them With Chemical Weapons and They Attacked Us With Chemical Weapons": Iraqi Records and the History of Iran's Chemical Weapons Program · General sourcewilsoncenter.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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