While Iraq had launched numerous attacks with aircraft and
missiles against border cities from the beginning of the war and sporadic raids on Iran's main cities, this was the first systematic strategic bombing that Iraq carried out during the war. This became known as the "war of the cities". In late 1981, in the context of the Iranian ground counter-offensives, the USSR lifted their arms embargo and massively rearmed Iraq, including with 40 MiG-25s, which enabled the Iraqi air force to challenge Iran's F-14s in their air space. Iraq used
Tu-22 Blinder and
Tu-16 Badger strategic bombers to carry out long-range high-speed raids on Iranian cities, including Tehran. Fighter-bombers such as the
MiG-25 Foxbat and
Su-22 Fitter were used against smaller or shorter range targets, as well as
escorting the strategic bombers. Starting in 1987,
Saddam Hussein ordered several
chemical attacks on civilian targets in Iran, such as the town of
Sardasht. Iran launched several retaliatory air raids on Iraq, while primarily shelling border cities such as Basra. Iran bought some
Scud missiles from
Libya and launched them against Baghdad. These too inflicted damage upon Iraq. On 7 February 1984, during the first war of the cities, Saddam ordered his air force to attack eleven Iranian cities. Bombardments ceased on 22 February 1984. Iran struck back, hitting Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. The attacks resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties on both sides, and became known as the first "war of the cities". It was estimated that 4,700 Iranian civilians were killed and 22,000 were wounded during the raids in February alone. There were five such major exchanges throughout the course of the war, and multiple minor ones. While interior cities such as Tehran, Tabriz, Qom, Isfahan and Shiraz did receive numerous raids, it was the cities of western Iran that suffered the most death and destruction.
Campaigns Five campaigns of systematic Iraqi and Iranian air raids were conducted over eight years. The first campaign, initiated by the Iraqi Army, lasted from February 7 to 22, 1984, and was conducted in response to the Iranian refusal to observe a ceasefire. The second campaign was conducted from March 22 to April 8, 1985, in response to Iranian
Operation Badr. This campaign attacked many Iranian urban areas in western Iran, including
Tehran,
Tabriz,
Shiraz, and
Isfahan. The third campaign lasted from January 17 to 25, 1987, in response to Iranian
Operation Dawn 8. The fourth campaign was from February to April 1987. The fifth campaign was the most intensive, and was conducted by Iraq once the Iranian front lines showed elements of weakening. It was conducted in January-February 1988, and involved missile attacks on some Iranian cities. ==Casualties and aftermath==