The Gulf Carnage in the Marshes

By William E. Smith.

They lay as they had fallen, crumpled and now frozen in death, dust-covered mounds in the flat expanse of the gray-brown desert. There were hundreds of them, Iranian infantrymen who had fought and died. A column of Iraqi tanks, their spotlights flickering through billows of thick dust, churned past the bodies toward the east; the roar of their engines blended into a continuous hum. As outgoing rounds of 130-mm artillery shook the windows of his headquarters nearby, Iraqi Major General Sultan Hashem Ahmed told a group of reporters: "There are no Iranian soldiers on Iraqi territory--not even one."

Thus did a vaunted Iranian offensive come to an end last week, crushed by the weight of Iraqi firepower in the desert strip between the Tigris River and the Huwaiza marshes. Thousands of Iranian and Iraqi troops had been killed during the week-long assault; even so, there was no indication that the latest flare- up in the 4 1/2-year-old gulf war had brought the conflict any closer to a solution.

Nonetheless, Iraq began to celebrate as soon as War Communique 1774 announced that its forces "had achieved victory over the Iranian invaders in the Huwaiza marshes in a unique epic of warfare." Schools and offices closed, and city streets soon filled with dancing, chanting throngs. In smaller towns, crowds marched to government offices to hear local leaders deliver speeches. The festivities were filmed and televised late into the night, scenes of celebration alternating with views of the mangled Iranian dead.

The Iranian offensive, which had been expected for months, was remarkably successful in its first two days. The assault troops crossed the marshes and set up positions on the banks of the Tigris; a few units even crossed the river on pontoon bridges to the vicinity of the highway between Baghdad and Basra, Iraq's second city. When the Iraqis eventually counterattacked with heavy concentrations of armor and artillery, the Iranians dug in and fought back. That they had put up a valiant struggle was demonstrated by the burned- out hulks of Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers littering the battlefield. The Iranian infantry, although well armed, carried little more than automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades and had hardly any air or artillery support. After two days of stalemate, the Iraqis broke through and punched toward the east, forcing the remaining Iranians back to the shores of the marshes.

The second battle of the Huwaiza marshes ended much as had the first one a year ago, though the two encounters were otherwise dissimilar. In the first confrontation, the Iranians had attempted to prevail by sheer weight of numbers, throwing thousands of relatively untrained Revolutionary Guards into the fray. This year, by contrast, the assault troops were disciplined and well equipped; they wore boots and carried German-made gas masks. Their aim was to break through the Iraqi defense lines and then hold out against a counterattack, and for several days they did exactly that.

The Iraqis took severe losses as they sealed off the invasion area east of the Tigris and advanced from the north and south. They brought vastly superior firepower to bear--helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, armor and air support --and in the end, that carried the day. "Getting the Iranian troops deployed in the marshes was a tremendous logistical accomplishment," a Western military attache in Baghdad explained last week, "but very few of those who got in will be able to get out."

As in the past, both sides wildly exaggerated the battle results. Iraq claimed to have killed 27,200 Iranians, while Iran said its forces had killed or wounded 12,000 Iraqis. Independent analysts in Baghdad estimated that Iran had committed as many as 30,000 to 40,000 troops to the attack and that its dead might range as high as 15,000. The Iranian casualties were thought to have exceeded Iraq's by a ratio of 3 or 4 to 1.

Without admitting defeat, Tehran acknowledged that the battle was over, declaring that "the final operation, which will be our last reply to the Zionist enemy (Iraq), will undoubtedly be of greater scope and will enjoy heavier firepower." Soon after Baghdad proclaimed the end of the battle, truckloads of singing Iraqi soldiers made their way north to the capital. So did fleets of white-and-orange taxis carrying coffins on their roof racks, the caskets draped in Iraqi flags.

Though neither side gained much from the slaughter, the battle gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein an opportunity to savor a victory and allow his war- weary people to stage a celebration. The war, however, will continue as long % as Iran's leader, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, insists that Saddam must step down before there can be peace.

To increase pressure on Iran to begin negotiations, the Iraqi air force continued its campaign of aerial warfare against civilian areas, bombing at least 20 Iranian cities and towns in day and night raids. Iraq also declared Iranian airspace a "war exclusion zone" and warned international airlines against serving Tehran; some carriers responded by canceling flights to both Baghdad and Tehran. Foreign residents in Tehran, eager to leave after a series of Iraqi air attacks on the capital's northern areas, mobbed airline offices in an effort to secure passage out of the country. At the same time, the "tanker war" in the Persian Gulf went on unabated as Iraq reportedly attacked the principal Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island. The purpose: to demonstrate to Tehran that it cannot win a war of attrition.

Because the Iranian air force has only a few frontline aircraft left, Tehran's response to the Iraqi air war has been mild. Tehran threatened to attack Baghdad airport and close the airspace over the gulf, but so far it has done neither. Iran did continue its shelling of Iraqi cities with heavy artillery, however, and last week two large explosions shook Baghdad, killing at least 20 people. Iraqi officials believe that of four major blasts in Baghdad over the past two weeks, two or three were triggered by terrorist bombs; the fourth was apparently caused by an Iranian surface-to-surface missile, as Tehran claimed. Western officials believe Libya has provided Iran with Scud missiles built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s.

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi last week became the latest in a long line of world leaders who have attempted to mediate an end to a conflict that hardly anyone thinks can be won by either side. "We continue to believe that there can be no military solution," U.S. State Department Spokesman Edward Djerejian declared, "and we call upon Iran to join Iraq in accepting the many international calls for a cease-fire and a negotiated settlement." The problem is that as long as Khomeini, 84, is on the scene, the Iranians are unlikely to enter into negotiations.

After last week's victory, Saddam was cheered by a four-hour visit from two of his supporters, Jordan's King Hussein and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. The two had been conferring in the Jordanian capital of Amman and decided, without advance notice, to fly to Baghdad for consultations. One of Mubarak's key objectives was to persuade Saddam to renew diplomatic relations with Egypt, which were severed in 1977 at a time when Egypt was making peace overtures toward Israel. He was not quite ready to take that step at the moment, Saddam told his visitors; what really mattered in inter-Arab ties, he said, was not "an official formula" but what was in "our hearts and consciences." Translation: he has not forgotten that since the gulf war began in 1980, Egypt has sold Iran about $1 billion worth of arms, including large amounts of secondhand Soviet-made equipment.

With reporting by Barry Hillenbrand/Baghdad