The Iran Iraq War 1980-1988 - Modern Conflicts Profile Guide Vol. IV

This volume on the Iran-Iraq War and its legacy is intended to be a handy reference guide to Iraqi and Iranian military vehicles and artillery, spanning the beginning of the Iran-Iraq conflict, to the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, and finally the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I’m keenly aware that this book is only a drop in the ocean of material covering this conflict; due to the nature of the series, its scope is limited to ground equipment used by both sides of that conflict. It doesn’t cover the so-called Tanker War, the extensive air battles between Iran and Iraq, or the ballistic missile campaign known as “The War of the Cities.” However, many other similar volumes, of excellent value to both the modeller and the historian, are readily available from other publishers.

For those who remember the Iran-Iraq War, it may seem profoundly ironic that Iran is now deeply involved in Iraqi national affairs. Iranian ground forces have helped Iraq defeat the regional threat of ISIS, while the Iraqi army, having suffered near-defeat at the hands of ISIS, is once again being rearmed with a mix of US and Russian military hardware. As this book goes to publication, Israeli strike aircraft have conducted covert strikes on missile depots belonging to Iraqi Shi’a militias and their Iranian backers, highlighting the complex nature of the conflict between the many factions in the Middle East. Such actions, combined with US sanctions against Iran and Iranian efforts to galvanize their surrogates in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, threaten to widen into a larger regional conflict.

No doubt this part of world will keep producing material for further volumes to come; for now, I will thank all involved in this production, including Slawek Zajaczkowski, Pere Valls, and Matt Reeves, as well as Paul Kunkels and Arturas Skyrus for their and for that matter all my friends from Facebook who assisted, [you know who you are], in this research project.