T-72 tanks saw service in the 1991 Persian Gulf War as well as the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Like other tanks in the Iraqi inventory, T-72s were mainly employed as armored
self-propelled artillery, rather than in
maneuver warfare roles. In operations, it fared poorly against American
main battle tanks and
armored fighting vehicles. For example, a 120 mm
depleted uranium (DU)
APFSDS round from an
M1 Abrams could knock out a T-72 tank well beyond 3,000 m, while the effective range of the APFSDS 125 mm shell used by Iraq was 1,800 m. The Iraqi T-72s used 3BM9 APFSDS shells (removed from Soviet service in 1973), with a penetration only 245 mm at a distance of up to . Poor maintenance also played a part against it: most of the Iraq fleet saw service in the Iran-Iraq War, but they weren't kept in pristine condition. Barrel erosion on the main guns was a significant issue, decreasing their accuracy. The Iraqi T-72s, like most export versions, lacked then-modern
night vision systems, though they did have some night fighting tanks with older active infrared systems or floodlights - just not the latest starlight scopes and passive infrared scopes as on the Abrams. Within closer ranges, the T-72 was more effective, especially while within prepared positions. However, even in such conditions, it did not fare well against M1s − as proven in the
Battle of Norfolk during
Desert Storm, where the Iraqi tank shells fell short of their targets while the M1A1s began destroying their targets without suffering any casualties, although the tank also participated in the
Battle of Phase Line Bullet, where
Bradley IFVs from the 4th squadron of the
7th Cavalry Regiment were driven back by dug-in Iraqi armoured vehicles at heavy cost. While the T-72M1 armor was effective against all 105 mm threats during the 1980s, including Israeli
tungsten carbide APFSDS rounds and older versions of the M1 Abrams armed with a 105 mm main gun; it was inadequate against the 120 mm gun of the M1A1 at normal combat ranges. Some T-72s were fitted with jamming pods to spoof anti-tank guided missiles such as the
TOW and
MILAN, but it proved to be ineffective. According to Zaloga, the United States modified the TOW guidance system before the war to counter them, though according to an account from Atkinson, "one TOW appeared to skip across the hull of a T-72, hitting another one in the turret." The US also developed a
tandem-charge version in order to counter up-armoured Soviet tanks. There is evidence of at least one T-72 surviving a direct hit from an Abrams main gun in Mahmoudiyah in 2003. A 120 mm HEAT round from an Abrams impacted on the front of an
Asad Babil turret at point blank range without producing a catastrophic kill. Some Iraqi T-72 tanks may have been fitted with
explosive reactive armor, possibly obtained from Polish T-72M1 spare parts. Another improvised armor upgrade may have also been added at the Taji complex: an additional 30 mm armor plate was welded onto the front areas of the hull and turret, leaving an air gap matching the size of the armor, so that the power of a HEAT jet could be dissipated in the hollow space. This technique follows the principle of
spaced armor. The Iraqi engineers tested this reinforcement against captured Iranian 120 mm
Chieftain tank guns in 1989, apparently with some success.
Iran-Iraq War Iraq deployed Soviet-built T-72B and Czechoslovak and Polish built T-72Gs against Iranian forces during the
Iran–Iraq War. Iranian
105mm M68 tank guns and
TOW missiles were ineffective against the T-72s' front armor. Overall, Iraq lost 60 T-72s during the war. The division included
Chieftain tanks against which the T-72 proved effective; Iran started the war with 894 Chieftains, of which only about 200 were left by the end of it. The 3BM9 APFSDS round was capable of penetrating the frontal armor of the Chieftain tank. Western observers, taking into account potential improvements on Soviet ammunition, concluded that the equivalent of of
rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) would be necessary to prevent frontal penetration from the T-72 main gun. According to both sides, the T-72 was the most feared tank of the war.
Invasion of Kuwait Prior to the
Invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqis massed 100,000 troops and hundreds of T-54, T-55, and T-72 tanks alongside the border in an apparent act of harmless saber rattling. Once they managed to deceive Western intelligence agencies and the Kuwaitis, 350 tanks crossed the border with no resistance until they reached the outskirts of
Kuwait City itself. While the initial resistance came from a pair of
FV101 Scorpion light tanks, which were quickly destroyed by T-72s, the Iraqi advance was slowed down by the lack of ammunition: in order to keep the deception, only 24 T-72s of the Republican Guard carried full ammunition loads. Kuwaiti tanks, which also included a small number of
Yugoslav-made
M-84s (based on the T-72) engaged Iraqi tanks at the
Mutla Pass on August 2, 1990, but were defeated; they did knock out one T-72.
Gulf War The bulk of Iraqi armoured units were mostly equipped with the
Type 69 and only
Republican Guard divisions were equipped with Iraqi-modified T-72s, with exception of the regular army's armored
Saladin division, so that T-72s only engaged with
Coalition tank when Republican Guard units were involved. During
Desert Storm, Iraqi T-72s were technologically 20 years out of date. Only one M1 Abrams was officially documented during the Persian Gulf War as having received enough damage to be towed and receive maintenance after being struck three times on the turret by T-72 fire. Another six M1A1s were officially reported to have been hit by Iraqi T-72 tank fire, but the impacts were largely ineffectual. According to Atkinson and Scales, T-72s accounted for at least two M2 Bradley kills during Desert Storm and left several damaged, all on February 26, 1991. Overall, the T-72 offered little challenge to Abrams and Challenger tanks, both of which could hit a T-72 from outside T-72 range. In addition to lack of range, exploding munitions facilitated by the design of the tanks' ammunition loading system were also an issue for Iraqi T-72s.
2003 Iraq War During the
2003 invasion of Iraq, the Republican Guard's T-72s, most from the
Medina Division, were deployed around Baghdad to attempt a last-ditch defense of the
Baath regime. In April 2003, U.S. tanks engaged their counterparts from just 50 yards, destroying seven Iraqi T-72s without any losses. Such encounters exposed the poor marksmanship of Iraqi gunners, in part due to the shortage of modern night-vision and range-finder assets. The T-72s were even more technologically lacking at this time, and it is not known if any improvements to the tanks were made between the Persian Gulf War and this conflict. Nonetheless, one Bradley was largely disabled by a 125 mm round from an Asad Babil tank when Iraqi armoured troops attempted to attack their American opponents near
Baghdad airport. The last operational T-72s acquired from the USSR and Poland were destroyed by the successive waves of American armored incursions on the Iraqi capital or abandoned by their crews after the fall of Baghdad, several of them without firing a single shot. The derelict tanks were later scrapped by
U.S. Army disposal teams or shipped to the
United States for target practice.
War against the Islamic State In April 2017, the pro-government
Hashed al-Shaabi militia used Iraqi-modified T-72Ms against forces of the Islamic State in clashes around the ancient city of Hatra. In the same year, the Iraqi army also used T-72s during the
Battle of Mossul. ==Lion of Babylon project==