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00:02The year was 1979.
00:08Saddam Hussein, the charismatic president of Iraq, was ruling with a rod of iron.
00:15Anyone who stepped out of line faced imprisonment, torture or death.
00:24Saddam Hussein, the enemy was killed by the Iraqi government by the power of the army and the weapon.
00:31The main fear of the Iraqi government was on the life of his.
00:36It's not a fear that he would eat, he would eat, he would go to a trip, he would go
00:42to a school, he would go to a school, he would go to a school, he would go to a
00:43school.
00:49Saddam was endlessly ambitious.
00:55Modeling himself on Stalin, he dreamt of ruling through his Ba'ath party, the entire Arab world.
01:11Across the border, Iran was undergoing an Islamic revolution.
01:18At its head was someone every bit as charismatic, ambitious and ruthless as Saddam.
01:23Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Rouhala Khomeini.
01:32His people were in awe of him.
01:35Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Rouhala Khomeini.
01:44His people were in awe of him.
01:48They all informed me that this religion would give us a power.
01:55And, even after them, we would have a city who would be the man of God, and an Arabic, and
02:01a French.
02:02So, they would have a reason to serve all these fears from us.
02:07Khomeini dreamt of exporting his revolution and through his autocratic
02:12religious government leading the entire Islamic world. A clash with Saddam was
02:18just a matter of time and it would kill or injure two and a half million people.
03:00A clash with Saddam was just a matter of time and it would kill or injure two and a half
03:05million people.
03:13Saddam Hussein had spent his life scheming and murdering his way to the top.
03:18He had recently seized leadership of the Ba'ath Party,
03:22an authoritarian organization modeled on the Communist Party.
03:33After Saddam declared himself president,
03:36he announced to Ba'ath Party officials that there had been a plot against him.
03:53The traitors were in the audience.
04:13He'd made it all up, but the fiction would serve his purpose.
04:31He announced the so-called traitors and ordered them to leave the auditorium.
04:41I'm also the one that he was now and the other part.
04:41Mohamed Manafi Lya Sime.動
04:48escritor a title and he was the one who was a раз in the late days. He
05:00was the one who was the first king that
05:01was the one who was the one who was the king. He
05:08was the king. He
05:10was the king.
05:16Twenty-one men were executed.
05:36Those spared were made to shoot their comrades.
05:41This was ruled by fear.
05:50Saddam may have achieved the success he craved at home.
06:05But he'd recently made a fateful enemy abroad.
06:17Saddam had allowed Khomeini to shelter in Iraq for years to plot the overthrow of the Shah of Iran.
06:26But he'd decided to change his policy to the Shah, and had exiled the troublesome cleric.
06:36Khomeini had left Iraq humiliated.
06:38He would never forgive Saddam.
06:42But politics is unpredictable.
06:44And within months, it was the Shah of Iran who was fleeing.
06:49And Khomeini was making a triumphant return.
07:20Khomeini was the father of the revolution.
07:27He was quick to impose his authority on Iran.
07:32First, he hunted down supporters of the Shah's regime, like members of the hated secret police,
07:51Savak.
08:06Groups identified as counter-revolutionary were also arrested and executed.
08:19Khomeini blamed much of this opposition on America.
08:22He despised its non-Muslim values and inflamed hatred of the foreigners.
08:29The big Satan that is in America is in the same way.
08:35He is in the same way.
08:39The people of Iran who are in the Iran and the people of the outside are in the same way.
08:47He is in the same way.
09:02To further secure the revolution, the government decided to marshal its supporters.
09:08They dreamed of a fanatically loyal volunteer army, 20 million strong.
09:42There was no shortage of volunteers.
09:44There was no shortage of volunteers.
09:46There was no shortage of volunteers.
09:58These volunteers would become the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
10:10But Khomeini didn't just want to protect the revolution.
10:13He wanted to export it to neighbouring states, especially Iraq.
10:22Mr Khomeini didn't have a man.
10:25If someone wanted to do something, he would come.
10:29And the fact that Saddam had been sent to Iraq,
10:32and that he had been sent to Iraq,
10:36he was affected by Khomeini.
10:43He started encouraging Shia groups to rise up.
10:56In Iraq, Saddam could see the danger.
11:01He warned Iraqis on state television.
11:18When Iranian groups started a terrorist campaign, Saddam promised revenge.
11:34Hundreds of suspected supporters of Iran were tortured and executed.
11:46Then Saddam expelled tens of thousands of Shias he considered too Iranian.
11:54Muslim I
11:55They died.
11:57And after one of those i told us that there's a lot,
12:00they don't really stop not.
12:01Because from sight, it's very, very clear there's enemies.
12:08There's a chance of persecution and persecution.
12:13Today, more attention, Mr Khomeininego.
12:19There are a lot of discrimination
12:21that you can't be, you can't be able to do it.
12:28But Saddam was still worried that Iran wouldn't back off.
12:33It is believed that he secretly gave support to Iranian military officers
12:38planning to overthrow Khomeini.
12:42They were confident that they could take advantage
12:44of a new and growing unrest in Tehran.
12:51A year after Khomeini's triumphant return,
12:54his faction of the revolution was clashing violently with rival groups.
13:08But Khomeini discovered the military coup,
13:10and he was ruthless in his reaction.
13:14He ordered a purge of the armed forces' senior officers.
13:21.
13:21.
13:49Khamenei had stifled the coup, but in purging the army,
13:52armed forces, he was playing into Saddam's hands.
14:07In Baghdad, as he went through the charade of parliamentary democracy, Saddam Hussein,
14:12a man who preyed on weakness, was already hatching a plan.
14:18He had decided to take advantage of Iran's infighting and military vulnerability.
14:26Five years earlier, Saddam had relinquished half the Arab waterway, the Shat al-Arab, to
14:33Iran.
14:36It was his only link to the sea.
14:42He decided now to take it back by force.
14:48His plan was to send his army 20km into Arabistan, the ethnically Arab region of Iran, and dig
14:56into what would be friendly territory.
14:58It would be a short, contained war.
15:03But before Saddam could launch his secret plan, events again played into his hands.
15:17Iran began shelling Iraqi border towns.
15:22Border skirmishes between the two countries were common.
15:25Iran.
15:26But it gave Saddam the perfect pretext for war.
15:48Saddam had summoned his general staff.
15:51They said they weren't ready for a war against the larger Iranian army.
15:54But the self-appointed commander-in-chief, with no military experience, pushed on regardless.
16:02A recording of the meeting exists.
16:06It's important that we can go back to the Arab, and we have to go back to them.
16:26At midday on September the 22nd, 1980, Saddam ordered 200 fighter bombers into Iraq.
16:37Iran.
16:38His tanks rolled east.
16:45His troops were optimistic.
16:49The country taught me, taught me, and taught me to protect them.
16:53And the war, as we looked at it, was a war, a war, a war, a war, a war, a
16:59war, a war.
17:07The Iraqis compared the war to the ancient battle of Qadisiya between Muslim Arabs and Infidel Persians.
17:20Iraqi forces surged forwards.
17:23Iraqi forces surged forwards.
17:24In the first few days, there was little resistance.
17:29Over in Tehran, Khomeini addressed the nation to quell rumors.
17:59The government was in shock.
18:03Iraqi forces, Ashiro Manam, ấy Ifo and Siro Maipal, They are a war, a war, a war.
18:12But, those soldiers were attacking the Bay Area.
18:16If the soldiers held up to Iran, they were attacking the refugees.
18:27They were fighting against the regime.
18:29And they were fighting against old people.
18:30Even the regime had no changes.
18:31from its air force despite particularly heavy losses from purges and executions
18:39Iran's pilots were keen to prove their patriotism key targets in Iraq were
19:22selected for counter-attack
19:22and if you click on a form of an instrument, it will make the actual meaning to you
19:46and if you click on a form of an instrument, you will have a more general decision
19:49and if you please press the icon on your form of a really genuine
20:00Over the following days, Iranian pilots took out key targets, including bases in Baghdad just six minutes by air from
20:09the border.
20:35Within days, Iranians right across the country were beginning to unite against the threat posed by Saddam.
20:43The country was not splintering into civil war as Saddam had predicted.
21:14The troops were urged on by Khomeini.
21:17The President of the Prophet, the Prophet, is that you are people, and as the soldiers of Islam, are working.
21:28They are telling us that if you do it, you will get to it.
21:34And if they do it, you will get to it.
21:46Volunteers poured in to join the Revolutionary Guard.
21:51They had no experience of war and no command structure, but they had endless zeal.
22:09They rushed to the front, keen to give their lives.
22:15They were the same.
22:20They are the same.
22:23They clearly took away their enemies.
22:24And they took off their prze程.
22:26They took refuge.
22:29They took refuge.
22:31They took refuge.
22:31They took refuge.
22:33And kept captive.
22:35And now their people took refuge.
22:41They took refuge.
22:45It was soon clear to the world that the conflict wouldn't be a short-lived border dispute.
22:51The global oil supply was under threat, and America was worried.
22:58Freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf is of primary importance to the whole international community.
23:05It is imperative that there be no infringement of that freedom of passage of ships to and from the Persian
23:13Gulf region.
23:16The United Nations called for an immediate ceasefire, the first of many attempts to bring peace.
23:24I share the view and the fear expressed yesterday by the Secretary General that this conflict could have serious and
23:33unpredictable consequences.
23:35And I echo his call for a negotiated settlement.
23:45Saddam indicated that he was prepared to accept the ceasefire if Iran recognized Iraqi sovereignty over the Shah al-Arab.
23:56But Khomeini announced that he was totally opposed to any talk of negotiations.
24:05But that was often when praying and theīnk kiki
24:10A'afir are afraid.
24:12A'afir is afraid.
24:13A'afir is afraid, 용ant, and another and an ist Produkt was a threat.
24:18And they would send Thingin' вкус.
24:27By now it was clear that Saddam's invasion was not the pushover he'd expected.
24:34To increase pressure on Iran, he focused on taking the oil refinery town of Abadan, vital
24:40to the Iranian economy.
24:45But his men had to capture the neighbouring city of Horem Shah first, and they were already
24:51meeting serious resistance.
25:17Saddam's forces pushed forward street by street.
25:40Finally, they gained control over Horem Shah's docks and port.
25:44Their main goal, Abadan, was just down the waterway.
25:53For the Iranians, the loss of this port is economically disastrous.
25:57For the Iraqis, if they can secure further down this waterway, then they do have at least
26:02one bargaining counter with which they can now try to secure what this war is really all
26:07about, the sovereignty over this waterway, the Shat al-Arab.
26:14But in the month it had taken for Iraqi troops to capture Horem Shah, Abadan had been fortified.
26:25Saddam ordered his exhausted troops to surround the town and prepare a siege.
26:31His whole strategy was in tatters.
26:42Iran now took the initiative.
26:44It attacked Iraq's valuable offshore oil rings.
26:50Spurred on by patriotism, its troops were also having success on the front line.
26:55POOSE
26:57The Iraqis
27:19The Iraqis
27:45Nothing would hinder Iranian determination.
28:07Four months into the war, and Iran now launched a major counter-attack to break the siege
28:14of Abadan and expel the Iraqis from their territory.
28:22The attack began well, but their best generals had been imprisoned or executed, and their
28:39main tank column was sent into an ambush.
28:59The Iraqis had won an overwhelming victory.
29:14Saddam Hussein urged his people to remain resolute in the face of a war he argued had been started
29:20by Iran.
29:22And how can he be able to get this attack?
29:27. . . . . . . . . . . .
29:57. . .
30:05Saddam's best hope was still in the ongoing attempts by the UN to start negotiations.
30:12And the UN was becoming increasingly worried about the war escalating.
30:19In the first of several missions to the region, UN Special Envoy Olaf Palmer saw the destruction for himself.
30:28Everybody understands the risks for the region, for the spread of the war,
30:34and the harm it does to the peaceful development of these two great countries.
30:39Do you think there is still a long way to a peaceful settlement?
30:44I hope not. I mean, logically. I think when working on it, I see that logically there should be a
30:52rapid peace.
30:53But there are so many factors playing that you never know.
31:00Not least of these factors was Iran's intransigence.
31:05The ailing 78-year-old Khomeini was in no mood to negotiate with the unbeliever,
31:11and demanded the UN punish Saddam.
31:15He explained his position.
31:16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:26. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:27. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:37. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:37. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:38. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:38. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:38. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31:42.
31:51But Saddam had a backup plan.
31:54With French help, he was building a nuclear reactor, OSIRAC, and it was nearing completion.
32:02Saddam made little secret of what it was for, as he'd even admitted to a journalist.
32:11Disagreement with France is the first concrete step towards the production of the Arab atomic weapon.
32:20The French were prepared to look the other way.
32:23The nuclear affair would cause immense nervousness.
32:28It wasn't an ordinary research reactor, OSIRAC.
32:31It was fueled with highly enriched uranium, which in itself was sort of unusual by that time.
32:39Now, highly enriched uranium is uranium you can practically use directly to produce a nuclear weapon.
32:47France was making a pragmatic calculation.
32:50They knew they were dealing with a dangerous and unpredictable tyrant.
32:56About Saddam, the person, the French, had absolutely no illusions.
33:01But of course, such considerations are not the primary considerations when you're making your strategic and military choices.
33:13The Iraqis were paying top money.
33:16In effect, the Iraqis were subsidizing our own national defense effort.
33:24But unexpectedly, Saddam's hopes to use nuclear weapons to end the war were dashed.
33:40His anti-aircraft crews were on dinner break when jets destroyed the reactor.
33:48The attacker was Israel, supported by Iranian intelligence.
33:54Saddam had made threats previously to annihilate Israel.
33:59And this had provoked the raid.
34:04The president was furious.
34:06He executed the commander responsible for the anti-aircraft units.
34:16Meanwhile, Khomeini was preparing a major new offensive.
34:21This time, the revolutionary guard, not the less trusted army, would be key.
34:27In the forces of Islam who have been sent to his name, they will be a lot of the people
34:43of Islam and must do all of them,
34:59A war of national defense was taking an increasingly religious tone.
35:10The Revolutionary Guard were fueled by fanaticism and a desire for martyrdom.
35:16Their units joined the main army.
35:19And together, moved to the Abaddon front.
35:28I was in the Abaddon.
35:30At 2-3-4 o'clock, when the attack started,
35:35there was no one waiting for me.
35:37Everyone has to go through everything in their hands.
35:42They go through the roof or the roof.
35:45When the police were pushed, they were armed,
35:49with their weapons and without their weapons.
35:51They go through the work they did.
36:16After three days of fierce fighting, Iranian forces finally lifted the ten-month siege
36:23of Abaddon. Khomeini had prayed for success, and his men had delivered it.
36:32Iranian forces now started preparing a series of offenses to dislodge the Iraqi army altogether.
36:42The Revolutionary Guard was being led by 27-year-old Mosin Rezaei.
36:50The men of Israel are the victims of Islam, the brothers of Israel, the soldiers, the soldiers,
36:58the soldiers, the soldiers, the soldiers, the soldiers and the soldiers.
37:01In the following weeks and the following weeks, the men of Israel will see how the Iraqis
37:09were in the regime of the U.S. regime.
37:16Rezaei introduced a new tactic.
37:24The plan was to use mass infantry assaults to draw enemy fire.
37:29The soldiers were little more than cannon fodder.
37:37With a population three times that of Iraq, Iran had a vast supply of potential manpower.
37:46Over the following months, the tactic was tested, with success.
38:15The generals in the regular army preferred a more considered strategy.
38:19But many ordinary soldiers were in awe of what they saw.
38:56Iran was now ready to launch Operation Undeniable Victory.
39:01They hoped it would turn the war.
39:04And since we are working in this house, and now it has been done,
39:08the brothers, all the people who have done work in this house,
39:13I will leave this way.
39:18When the assault began,
39:20a hundred thousand men advanced towards the enemy lines.
39:32And on the other side of the front line,
39:34Iraqi soldiers were happy to deliver the martyr's dream of paradise.
39:44The human waves were relentless, and Iraqi ammunition began to run out.
39:52Their lines began to crumble.
39:58After six days, Saddam ordered a retreat.
40:14Iraqi morale, already poor, was collapsing.
40:19All Saddam had left to bargain with was the town of Qoram Shah.
40:2618 months into the war,
40:28and Saddam now offered to abandon all his territorial claims
40:31and withdraw his troops from Iran,
40:33if they would, in turn, just respect Iraq's borders.
40:40Tehran didn't bother to respond.
40:43The leadership were preparing for a new and final assault.
40:56Now the Revolutionary Guards volunteer wing, the Besiege,
41:00sought to expand their numbers further.
41:02They formally offered the opportunity for martyrdom
41:05to a source of keen recruits, children.
41:25Khamenei had decreed that children could fight without their parents' permission.
41:36Khamenei had decreed that children could fight without their parents' permission.
41:37The mother was always a part of their fault.
41:40My mother was a believer that she would go for a child.
41:43She would not want to be left alone.
41:45According to all directions,
41:47the country would have been a way to the leader of the war,
41:52and the way that she is a to take a fight like Imam Hussain.
41:56How come you have been?
41:57How long have you been?
41:58I am the President.
42:00I am the President.
42:06Not all child soldiers were so willing.
42:40The young fighters were given no more than a week's training.
43:08The new recruits were now tasked with liberating Khuram Shah, Iraq's last major foothold in Iran.
43:16They faced a heavily entrenched Iraqi force.
43:21At 11, 15 February on Friday, I started working on my own.
43:29I started working on a lot of work and I started working on my own.
43:56200,000 Iranian soldiers were assaulting Haram Shah.
44:22One of them told me about Hussein, one of them told me about Mahdi.
44:30The heart of their heart became the same.
44:32The heart of their heart and the heart of their heart became the same.
44:44My son was a stupid kid that ran after my house and was coming to my house.
44:55My brother said that he was a hard boy.
45:00He said that he was very comfortable.
45:04He said that he was very comfortable.
45:04He said he would do it for me.
45:07What do you want to say to your mother?
45:11What do you want to say to your mother?
45:13What do you want to say to your mother?
45:27Meter by meter, they pushed through the defences at Khóram Shah
45:32and finally reached the outskirts of the city.
45:41As the Iraqi defences collapsed, they took thousands of prisons.
45:58What do you want to say to your mother?
46:02What do you want to say to your mother?
46:05These are the people.
46:08We want to go to the front of the city.
46:15Animosity between both sides had reached such new heights
46:18that those captured were often treated without mercy.
46:30The POWs marched in captivity past scenes of total devastation.
46:38The people who looked at the streets were killed.
46:42I don't know what they were doing to me.
46:43I don't know.
46:44There was a man in the prison.
46:47We had a man in prison.
46:48We had a man with a man with a man, a man with a man.
46:49We had a man with a man with a man.
46:50Someone had just seen a picture.
46:53He was like a picture of the house.
46:54He came back to me.
46:58We were in the war of the war.
47:04We were in the war of the war.
47:04For Iranians, the victory at Khuram Shah
47:06signified the end of Iraqi occupation.
47:11We were in the church.
47:16We were in the church.
47:18We were in the church.
47:19We were in the church.
47:23We were in the church.
47:26We were in the church.
47:29We were in the church.
47:33We were in the church.
47:47The mood of the retreating Iraqi army was very different.
48:12Saddam had to recognize that not only was his reckless invasion over, but Iraq itself
48:18was now threatened.
48:22Khomeini and his advisors were already discussing how they might wreak God's punishment on
48:27Saddam and liberate the holy sites in Iraq, like Karbala.
49:00Our exploration of the Iran-Iraq war continues here on PBS America tomorrow night at 5 to
49:0510.
49:06Next, they draw visitors from all around the world with their tales of myth and legend.
49:11We explore Britain's fortified history of the castle.
49:15A
49:30해서
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