Operation Before the Dawn was the first of the three costly human-wave attacks of 1983 in the Amarah

Amarah

Amarah , is a city in southeastern Iraq, located on a low ridge next to the Tigris River waterway south of Baghdad about 50 km from the border with Iran. It lies at the northern tip of the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates....

 area 200 kilometers southeast of Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

. It was launched by Iran.

Prelude

The Iranians originally planned the offensive to mark the fourth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Objectives were clear: drive enemy forces from Iranian soil, seize Iraqi territory in the Amarah area, and move on to Baghdad. Seizure of the city of al-Amarah would give Iran the upper hand in disrupting troop and supply movements from Baghdad to Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

.

U.S. Intelligence reported that both sides had over 100,000 soldiers poised for battle. The Iranian forces consisted of mostly 'last reserve' Pasdaran and Basij

Basij

The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution's leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The force consists of young Iranians who have volunteered, often in exchange for official benefits...

 volunteers backed by two divisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army

Islamic Republic of Iran Army

The Islamic Republic of Iran Army is the ground force of the Military of Islamic Republic of Iran. In Iran, it is also called Artesh, which is Persian for "army." As of 2007, the regular Iranian Army was estimated to have 465,000 personnel plus around 350,000 reservists for a total of 815,000...

. Iraqi forces consisted mostly of conscript infantry backed by Republican Guard tank brigades. In addition, the Iraqis also held three lines of trenches of which formed a semicircle around Amarah.

The terrain of the battleground added to Iran's difficulty. The area around Amarah rested in an area of low hills and marshes of which created an open plain. To this affect, Iraqi trenches were strategically positioned from the hills down to the tip of the marshes.

Regardless, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani further boasted:

The people expect this offensive to be the final military operation that will determine the destiny of the region.

The battle

On the morning of February 6, Iran attacked a 40-kilometer stretch near Al Amarah, via marshes and hill ridges. Iran's six-division attack managed to break through with the help of air, artillery, and armor support from the Regular Army. The Iraqis, though outnumbered, responded with 200 helicopter sorties per day to support the defenders. The sorties proved so effective that Iraqi tanks were reduced to effective defense roles. Not surprisingly, well over 6,000 Iranian troops perished on the first day of the operation.

By the middle of the offensive, Tehran Radio reported having 'liberated' over 120 square miles (310.8 km²) of Iranian territory. The reality was much more bleak, however, as Iran continually resorted to crude tactics, including the use of child soldiers in human wave charges across no man's land

No man's land

No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...

, which was always met with withering fire from the Iraqis. Lightly equipped and poorly trained Iranian teenagers attempted to charge dug-in Iraqi infantrymen firing from trenches. These teenage soldiers died by the hundreds, and some were captured after being wounded. Residents of the city of Ahvaz

Ahvaz

-History:For a more comprehensive historical treatment of the area, see the history section of Khūzestān Province.-Ancient history:Ahvaz is the anagram of "Avaz" and "Avaja" which appear in Darius's epigraph...

, 100 miles (160.9 km) behind the front, reported that their morgue was filled to the rim with bodies from the field.

Personal account

The following is a rare excerpt of a child soldier's experience during this operation. It has been cited from Ian Brown

Ian Brown

Ian George Brown is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses, which broke up in 1996 but are confirmed to reunite in 2012. Since the break-up of the Stone Roses he has pursued a solo career...

's, Khomeini's Forgotten Sons: The Story of Iran's Boy Soldiers":

After only a month's training at a camp near Khorramshahr, I was sent to the front. When we arrived we all assembled in a field where there must have been a thousand of us, some younger than me, and old men as well. The commander told us we were going to attack and Iraqi position north-east of Basra which guarded the road to Qurna, to try to capture the road. The following morning we set off at 4:00 A.M. in army trucks, and I had been given a gun and two hand grenades. The trucks stopped at the Iranian front and they told everyone to get out. The sun was beginning to come up as we started walking towards the Iraqi lines, and boy, was I scared! We'd been told the position was three kilometers away. As we got nearer, we could hear shells exploding, and I think it was us shelling them. When we got to the top of a hill, we started running down the other side towards the enemy position. I wasn't afraid any more. We all shouted, "Allah akbar" (God is great) as we ran, and I could see soldiers in front of us - a line of helmets - then they started firing. People dropped all around me, but I kept running and shouting while many were being killed. By the time I reached the trenches, I'd thrown my grenades and somehow had lost my gun, but I don't remember how. Then I was hit in the leg and fell over and lay for a long time right in front of the front lines. Other Iranians passed me but they all fell. I wanted to get up and help them but couldn't move. My leg felt like it was burning. Finally, the attack stopped in the afternoon, but I was asleep when the Iraqis came out of the trenches to look at the bodies. They were kicking them and when they kicked me, I screamed out in pain. But they picked me up and tossed me into the back of a lorry. For me the war was over.

Aftermath

Iran managed to regain 100 square miles (259 km²) of its own territory. But after a week of stalemate, Iran abandoned the operation after making only minimal gains against the Iraqis. Rafsanjani later retracted his earlier boast, saying that the offensive was not the last as expected. As for the Iraqis, this victory helped the poorly trained and shaken ground forces to boost their morale.