Tavakol offensive operation (January 10th, 1981)
Although, at the beginning of war, Ahwaz 92nd armor division of the I.R.I army was in charge of the command of Abadan and Khorramshahr’s operational area, the command of this area in the course of battle, due to various reasons was entrusted to Khuzestan gendarmerie strict and also to Abadan’s gendarmerie regiment, and for a short period of time the coordination among units in the area was done by Abadan’s operational staff.
Finally, the commander of the Gendarmerie force established the Arvand command and placed the area stretching from Faw region to 25 kilometers away from Salmaniyeh under its control.
To recapture Khorramshahr and raise the siege of Abadan and cleanse the area, I.R.I army joint staff issued an order on November 11 th, 1980 assigning a mission to the Arvand area command. Arvand area command planned Tavakol operation for five stages the first of which started on January 10th, 1981. After the infantry units attacked through the intersection of Abadan and Zolfaqariyeh Township, Iraq’s defensive line was disrupted and some of the Iraqi troops were taken captive, however on the other axes no success was achieved and armor units couldn’t make considerable advance. Consequently, not gaining remarkable success at the first phase of the operation, the remaining stages were not followed any longer.
Result:
-A great number of Iraqis were killed and wounded; the exact number is not available
-90 tanks and 60 personnel carriers along with 5 vehicles were destroyed.
-Although this operation was terminated unsuccessfully, two primary considerations were worth attention: the first one was the number of units on each side. Iraq had pre-pared more than 17 battalions while Iran made its attack with 9 battalions at most. The second one deals with the fact that with the lapse of 4 months after the outbreak of war, the public atmosphere inside Iran necessitated an attempt against Iraq to active the warfronts in Favor of Iran. Therefore, the accomplishment of this operation was inevitable and it became a good basis for conducting Samen-al-aemmeh operation in 1981.
Source:
The book named: Atlas of Unforgettable Battles (Ground forces operations in eight years of holy defense)
Compilation: Staff Colonel Mojtaba Jafari
Other links:
Kolineh and Seyyed Sadeq (1) offensive operation (December 19th, 1980)
Ouch-Soltan defensive operation (December 18th, 1980)
Susangerd defensive operation (November 23rd, 1980)
Ashura offensive operation (November 19th, 1980)
Offensive operation to free Susangerd (November 17th, 1980)
