Conflicting claims after Gulf War assault

Press, 16 June 1988, Page 8

Conflicting claims after Gulf War assault

NZPA-Reuter Nicosia The first major war operation directed by Teheran’s new military supremo, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has ended with Bagdad saying it had inflicted a crushing defeat on Iranian forces.

Mr Rafsanjani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, said on Tuesday that the operation, a two-day assault on Iraqi positions in the marshlands of southern Iraq, was a successful offensive to destroy Iraqi troops, equipment and fortifications.

An Iraqi , defence spokesman said more than 5000 Iranian troops were killed, wounded or captured as they were driven back past the front line they had originally

held before launching the attack in the Shalamchetr area.

Mr Rafsanjani, who was named acting commander of the Armed Forces on June 2 with a sweeping

brief to reorganise the military structure, said the Iranians staged an orderly withdrawal on Tuesday after achieving their objectives. Speaking on Iranian television, he said the hit-and-run nature of the operation was a new Iranian tactic. "It seems our forces’ discipline in the withdrawal was very notable," he said. He said Iran, which earlier put the Iraqi casualty toll at 18,200, did not have precise figures for Iraqi losses because “we did not remain in the area.”

The appointment of Mr Rafsanjani, already Teheran’s top war spokesman, was aimed at revitalising the Iranian Armed Forces after

two serious military setbacks.

Three weeks ago, Iranian forces were ousted from positions in the Shalamcheh area which they had held for more than a year, and in mid-April they were driven from Iraq’s southern Faw peninsula, which had been seized by the Iranians in February, 1986. The two defeats were the most serious suffered on the ground by Teheran since the early days of the war, which started almost eight years ago. Bagdad said the Iranians also lost ground on Tuesday in a new Iraqi offensive in the rugged mountains of north-east-ern Iraq near the town of Sulaymaniyeh.