The Iran-Iraq War, fought from 1980 to 1988, was the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. It was one of the most bitterly contested wars and remains one of the most fateful conflicts in the Middle East, strongly influencing the fate of both belligerents to the present day.

In September 1980, Iraq decided to invade Iran at a time when the latter was in a state of civil war, unrest, and chaos and was thus massively weakened, despite its immense military build-up of the 1970s. Iraq did so without much of a plan, and things rapidly went wrong. The invasion turned into a costly failure that nearly bankrupted the government in Baghdad, leaving it overdependent on extensive sponsorship by the oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf.

By 1982, Iran had not only recovered most of the terrain lost but was in possession of the strategic initiative. For the next five years, the Iranians launched ever more powerful attempts to invade Iraq and break the back of its armed forces. Ultimately, Iran failed, buying time for Iraq to recover and then deliver a series of devastating blows against both the Iranian economy and armed forces that, in 1988, destroyed Iran's ability to continue fighting.

In the wake of the success of the four volumes about the Iran Iraq War published in the Middle East@War book series, we have decided to republish these as a single hardback volume, with added appendices detailing the equipment and structure of the two armies, and new figure artworks, and thus offer our readers the opportunity to read what is widely considered as the most authoritative, most comprehensive, most detailed, and best-illustrated military history of ground warfare in this conflict in one volume.

Packed with information drawn primarily from Iranian and Iraqi sources, and heavily illustrated mostly in colour this volume provides an exclusive and uniquely precise insight into an affair certain to continue influencing the future of both of the countries involved for decades to come.

174 b/w photos, 8 colour figures, 244 colour photos, 77 colour profiles, 37 maps, 49 tables