Iraqi MiG's and Iranian Phantom's. During this battle, the Iraqis also made first significant use of chemical weapons, contributing to their successes on the battlefield. During this instance, the Iraqis used large amounts of non-lethal tear gas to disrupt the offensive, throwing an entire attacking Iranian division into chaos. On 21 July, the Iranians tried again with a second thrust and managed to penetrate through the Iraqi defence lines once again. However, only 13 km (8.1 mi) from Basra, the poorly equipped Iranian forces were surrounded on three sides and cut off from Iranian logistics and supply units by Iraqis who counter-attacked with heavy weaponry. The Iraqi counter-attacks once again pushed the Iranians back to their starting point where fighting slowed to a stalemate. Only a last-minute attack by Iranian Cobra helicopters stopped the Iraqis from routing the Iranians completely. Three more similar Iranian attacks occurred around the Khorramshar-Baghdad road area towards the end of the month, but none were significantly successful. The final Iranian thrust came on 1 August, when in a last ditch effort, the Iranians attacked Iraqi defence lines at the border, taking a sliver of land before fighting died down on 3 August. Iraq had concentrated three armoured divisions, the 3rd, 9th, and 10th, as a counter-attack force to attack any penetrations. They were successful in defeating the Iranian breakthroughs, but suffered heavy losses. The 9th Armoured Division in particular had been practically wiped out, lead to it being disbanded, and was never reformed. For Iran the additional loss of armor meant a further weakening in power projection and came to further reinforce its inability to conduct sweeping offensives at depth. Staunch Iraqi defense had managed to wipe out the already understrength Iranian armored divisions involved in the operation, and they had succeeded in doing so right at the border. For Iran this setback was compounded by the fact that losses in armor could not be replaced at the same rate and to the same degree as that of Iraq's. These cumulative losses would have a catalytic effect on Iranian warfighting capacity. As time went on Iran gradually weakened while Iraq strengthened. Aftermath The operation was the first of many disastrous Iranian offensives which cost thousands of lives on both sides. The Iranians in particular had suffered appalling casualties in exchange for very limited territorial gains. According to scholar Rob Johnson, "Operation Ramadan was, by any