After two weeks of ferocious shelling by Iranian forces, Iraq's besieged southern port city of Basra is becoming a ravaged wasteland of damaged buildings and pockmarked streets. Toxic gas has engulfed an area south of the city where Iranian artillery barrages set fire to a petrochemical complex. Demoralized and frightened, thousands of the city's 1 million residents have reportedly fled north to the capital of Baghdad in cars, on bicycles and on foot. Said a U.S. official: "If there is a victory in this for the Iranians, it is that they have been able to create the impression that Basra is not a functioning city anymore."
Still, Iraqi defenders last week fought the Iranian offensive to a blood- drenched standstill. Some 60,000 Iranian troops remained dug in six miles east of the heavily fortified earthenwork defenses, known as the "wall of steel," that surround the city. The Iranian attackers were under constant bombardment by the superior air- and fire-power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces. The wounded were said to number 15,000 for the Iraqis and 45,000 for the Iranians. Since Iran began its latest series of attacks on Christmas Eve, an estimated total of 30,000 combatants have perished.
As the six-year-old gulf conflict dragged on, military observers noted a strategic anomaly. Despite clear advantages in weaponry and training, the Iraqis have thus far been unwilling to commit troops decisively on the front to dislodge the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's fanatical Revolutionary Guards. Said Pentagon Spokesman Robert Sims: "The battle for Basra is becoming one of the largest battles of this lengthy war."
For now, Iran appears to hold the upper hand, if only psychologically. The Iraqis have been put on the defensive by the recent campaign, for which both sides have amassed at least 200,000 soldiers. Since beginning its offensive in December, the Iranian army has made small gains south of Fish Lake, a 120- sq.-mi. area flooded by the Iraqis as a defensive barrier. Iran has also made incremental progress southeast of Basra in the marshy terrain along the Shatt al Arab, a strategic waterway that affords access to the Persian Gulf. The new toehold has enabled the Iranians to bombard Basra from closer range.
Iraq has counterattacked with devastating air raids on a dozen Iranian cities, including Tehran, Isfahan and the holy city of Qum. Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reported last week that 212 civilians had been killed and more than 600 wounded in the raids. Iran retaliated by firing a long-range missile that struck a residential area of Baghdad, causing dozens of casualties.
The siege of Basra seemed to have turned up the pressure considerably on the Iraqi government. In a Baghdad radio address, Saddam referred to Khomeini's "human wave" assaults, accusing the Iranian leader of "appealing, as if the devil were between his eyes, for further men to push into the inferno of death." He repeated his offer for a peace settlement, which the Iranian government promptly rejected. Meanwhile, a government-controlled newspaper published a decree by the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council asking for volunteers aged 14 through 25 to enlist in the army.