Order of battle during the Iran–Iraq War

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These are the orders of battle of the Iraqi and Iranian armies for the start of the Iran–Iraq War in 1980. The data is drawn from the Air Combat Information Group's Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf Database.

Iraq[]

Iraqi Army[]

1st Corps (Iraq), sector between Rawanduz and Marivan:

• 7th Infantry Division (HQ Sulaimaniyah, Iraq)
• 11th Infantry Division (HQ Sulaimaniyah, Iraq) (-) (113th Infantry Brigade)

Malovany (map p112) shows the 11th Infantry Division with elements north of the Rawanduz - Rayat road; the 7th Infantry Division advancing from its bases at Sulaimaniyah towards the border between Penjwin and Sayid Sadiq; and corps headquarters at Kirkuk.

2nd Army Corps (sector between Qasre-e-Shirin, Ilam, and Mehran, armor deployed between Mehran and Dezful)

• 6th Armored Division (HQ Baqubah, Iraq) 300 (T-62) (BMP-1)
• 9th Armored Division (HQ Samavah, Iraq) 300 (T-62 and BMP-1)
• ?10th Armored Division (HQ Baghdad, Iraq) 300 (T-62) (BMP-1); Malovany shows the division between Baqubah and , but notes it was moving to North Khuzestan.
• 2nd Infantry Division (HQ Kirkuk, Iraq)(Malovany map p112 shows the division deployed west of Badra, far to the south of Kirkuk.
• 4th Infantry Division (HQ Mosul, Iraq)(Malovany map p112 shows the division about half way between Baqubah and Mandali, south of the road between the two towns.)
• 6th Infantry Division (HQ Baqubah, Iraq)
• 8th Infantry Division (HQ Arbil, Iraq)

3rd Army Corps (HQ al-Qurnah, Iraq) (Sector between Dezful and Abadan)

• 3rd Armored Division (HQ Tikrit, Iraq) 300 (T-62) (BMP-1)(Malovany: east of Basra)
• ?10th Armored Division (HQ Baghdad, Iraq) 300 (T-62) (BMP-1)
• 12th Armored Division (HQ Dohuk, Iraq) (Held in Reserve) 300 (T-62) (BMP-1)
• 1st Mechanized Division (HQ Divaniyah, Iraq) 200 (T-55) (Czech OT-64 APC/BTR-50 APC)
• 5th Mechanized Division (HQ Basrah, Iraq) 200 (T-55) (Czech OT-64 APC/BTR-50 APC)(Malovany: east of Basra)
• 31st Independent Special Forces Brigade (-) (2 battalions) (one was attached to 5th MD, another to 3rd AD),
• 33rd Independent Special Forces Brigade
• 10th Independent Armored Brigade (T-72) (BMP-1)
• 12th Independent Armored Brigade (T-62) (BMP-1)
• 113th Infantry Brigade (Detachments) (From 11th Infantry Division)

Iran[]

Iranian Armed Forces[]

Iranian Army[]

Units Garrisoned along the Iraqi Border

• 16th Armored Division (Ghazvin, Iran) (M60A1, Chieftain Mk3/5, M113)
• (Kermanshah, Iran) (M60A1) (M113)
• 92nd Armored Division (Khuzestan, Iran) (M60A1, Chieftain Mk3/5) (M113)
• 21st Infantry Division (Tehran, Iran)
• 28th Infantry Division (Sanandaj, Saquez, and Marivan, Iran) (1 Armored Brigade) (M60A1) (M113)
• 64th Infantry Division (Orumiyeh, Iran)
• 77th Infantry Division (Khorasan, Iran) (1 Armored Brigade) (M48A5 MBT) (BTR-50)
• (Shiraz, Iran)
• (Zahedan (M47 MBT) (covering the borders to Afghanistan and Pakistan)
• (Gorgan, Iran)
• (Khoramabad, Iran) (Deployed in Field) (Connecting the positions of the 81st and 92nd AD)
• 23rd Airborne Special Forces Brigade (Tehran, Iran) (Deployed along the Iraqi border in 13 separate Detachments)
• 55th Airborne Brigade (Shiraz, Iran) (One battalion deployed in Sardasht, and a company each in Sanandaj and Dezful, Iran)
• 58th Takavar Division (Shahroud)
• 11th Independent Artillery Group
• 22nd Independent Artillery Group (Khuzestan, Iran)
• 33rd Independent Artillery Group
• 44th Independent Artillery Group
• 55th Independent Artillery Group (Khuzestan, Iran)
• 411th Engineering Group of Borujerd

Iranian Navy[]

• Takavar Marine Battalion of Bushehr

Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran)[]

Ground Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

• 8th Najaf Ashraf Division (Najafabad County, Isfahan)
• 14th Imam Hossein Division (Isfahan)
• 17th Ali ibn Abi Taleb Division (Qom)
• 25th Karbala Division (Mazandaran)
• 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division (Tehran)
• 31st Ashura Division (East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardabil)
• 33rd Al-Mahdi Brigade (Fars)
• 41st Tharallah Division (Kerman)
• unnamed others

Notes[]

Sources[]

• Tom Cooper & Farzad Bishop, with additional details from N. R., I Persian Gulf War: Iraqi Invasion of Iran, September 1980, Sep 9, 2003, 06:33, Air Combat Information Group

Further reading[]

• Pesach Malovany, "Wars of Modern Babylon", University Press of Kentucky, June 2017, ISBN 0813169437 / ISBN 978-0813169439.
• E R Hooton, Tom Cooper, Farzin Nadimi, The Iran-Iraq War Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan September 1980-May 1982, Middle East@War #23, October 2019 Revised & Expanded Edition, ISBN 9781913118525. It's precise down the number of heavy vehicles (tanks etc.) per brigade as of September 1980.