Operation Forty Stars

Operation Forty Stars (Persian: عملیات چلچراغ), also known as Operation Forty Lights, or Chelcheraq, was a military operation conducted by the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) at the closing stages of the Iran–Iraq War on 18 June 1988.[4] The goal was to occupy the Iranian border city of Mehran to control its oil fields, as well as Kurdish villages in the region.

Operation Forty Stars
Part of the Iran–Iraq War
Date18 June 1988
Location
Mehran County, Iran
Result

MEK victory, seizure of Mehran

  • Successful MEK offensive
  • Iranian defensive failure
Belligerents
MEK
  Iran
Commanders and leaders
Massoud Rajavi Iran Ruhollah Khomeini
Iran Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Iran Ali Shahbazi
Strength
22 PMOI brigades 16,000 (PMOI claim)
Casualties and losses
PMOI
71 dead (PMOI claim)
240 wounded (PMOI claim)[1]
Thousands dead (Iranian claim)[1]		 8,000 dead and wounded (PMOI claim)[1]
1,500–3,000 captured[2][3]
40 tanks
20 APCs
numerous 155mm and 130mm artillery pieces
numerous TOW ATGMs
numerous HAWK SAM batteries, and hundreds of small arms, mortars and machineguns captured[1][2]

In four days, the People's Mujahedin of Iran wiped out a Pasdaran division, seizing Mehran and building a bridgehead twelve miles into Iran.[5]

The battle

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on the night of Saturday 18 June, Iraq launched the operation with the help of the MEK, which had been trained and armed in Iraq. By employing nerve gas and 530 ground-attack sorties with fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships, they crushed the Iranian forces in the area around Mehran, killing or wounding 3,500 and nearly destroying a Revolutionary Guard division. Finally, The Iranian town of Mehran was captured and occupied by the combined MEK and Iraqi forces. The Iraqi and MEK forces captured several heights around the city, and took several supply dumps intact, enough to equip and supply 2 divisions. Booty included many Toyota Land Cruisers.[6]

According to the MEK, Iraqi soldiers did not participate in the operation. Baghdad also said it was not involved in the battle, with Time magazine reporting that "Iraq did claim that its forces had recaptured the oil-rich Majnoun islands east of the Tigris River, where Iranian defenders had been entrenched since 1984."[7][8]

In June 1988, Tehran radio said Iranian forces had wounded or killed 3,000 Iraqi soldiers. According to the statement and a report by AP News agency, 8,000 Iranians were killed or wounded and more than 1,500 captured in the battle, and about 16,000 Iranians were involved.[1]

The Iraqi forces left the area after three days, and MEK forces remained there. Iranian defense forces killed all remained MEK forces inside Iran territory in Mersad operation.[6] Finally, both side of war had officially accepted ceasefire on 20 July 1988.

Aftermath

It was a severe defeat for the Iranian forces, who lost a large amount of intact equipment, along with many troops killed or captured. Iraq also launched a wide-scale strategic bombing campaign on Iranian population centres and economic targets, setting 10 oil installations and six crude oil production plants in Ahwaz on fire and two pumping stations at Bibi Hakimeh as well as the destruction of other facilities at Gachsaran. Moreover, the bombing campaign included strikes on power stations, natural gas plants and offshore oil facilities.[6]

On 26 July 1988, Iranian forces launched Operation Mersad, and took back Mehran from MEK forces.

See also

References
  1. Blanche, Ed (23 June 1988). "Iranian Rebels Withdraw; Iran Claims to Repel Iraqi Assault". Associated Press News. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  2. "CORI Research Analysis" (PDF). CORI. 21 September 2009.
  3. "The Gulf: Fraternal Drubbing". Time. 4 July 1988. Retrieved 7 May 2019. Baghdad denied any involvement in the battle. At week's end, however, Iraq did claim that its forces had recaptured the oil-rich Majnoun islands east of the Tigris River, where Iranian defenders had been entrenched since 1984.
  4. Piazza, James A. (October 1994). "The Democratic Islamic Republic of Iran in Exile". Digest of Middle East Studies. 3 (4): 9–43. doi:10.1111/j.1949-3606.1994.tb00535.x. On June 19, 1988, the NLA launched its offensive entitled Chetel Setareh or "40 Stars" in which twenty-two organized brigades of Mojahedin recaptured the city of Mehran, which the regime had wrested from Iraqi control after the Mojahedin had set up its "provisional government" there. The Mojahedin claimed that absolutely no Iraqi soldiers participated in this operation, and Iraqi Culture and Information Minister, Latif Nusayyif Jasim, later denied that Iraq had deployed air units to help the NLA or had used chemical weapons to drive the Islamic Republic's troops from Mehran.
  5. Razoux, Pierre (2015). The Iran-Iraq War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674915718.
  6. "The Combination of Iraqi offensives and Western intervention force Iran to accept a cease-fire: September 1987 to March 1989". The Lessons of Modern War – Volume II: Iran–Iraq War (PDF). Center for Strategic and International Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  7. Piazza, James A. (October 1994). "The Democratic Islamic Republic of Iran in Exile". Digest of Middle East Studies. 3 (4): 9–43. doi:10.1111/j.1949-3606.1994.tb00535.x. On June 19, 1988, the NLA launched its offensive entitled Chehel Setareh or "40 Stars" in which twenty-two organized brigades of Mojahedin recaptured the city of Mehran, which the regime had wrested from Iraqi control after the Mojahedin had set up its "provisional government" there. The Mojahedin and claimed that absolutely no Iraqi soldiers participated in this operation, and Iraqi Culture and Information Minister, Latif Nusayyif Jasim, later denied that Iraq had deployed air units to help the NLA or had used chemical weapons to drive the Islamic Republic's troops from Mehran.
  8. "The Gulf: Fraternal Drubbing". Time. 4 July 1988.

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