The 1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan was an armed infiltration carried out by Pakistan in February 1973 at the embassy of Ba'athist Iraq in Islamabad. The raid, carried out by the Pakistan Rangers and the Islamabad Police, was launched after the interception of information by Pakistani intelligence that uncovered large-scale covert Iraqi involvement in the supplication of weapons and funds to militants waging an insurgency against Iran (then the Imperial State of Iran) and Pakistan in the Balochistan region situated between the two countries. Following the embassy raid, an abundance of funds and Soviet armaments from Iraq that were meant for Baloch insurgents were seized by Pakistani forces, and the Iraqi ambassador to Pakistan as well as the embassy's staff were immediately expelled from Pakistan and declared personae non gratae. Pakistan's findings in the embassy raid heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq, which, in 1974, escalated into armed clashes over the Shatt al-Arab, a river that was formerly subject to a territorial dispute between the two nations that later served as one of the key factors that propelled them into a full-scale and protracted war in 1980 following the Iranian Revolution. The event led to a severe deterioration in Iraq–Pakistan relations and contributed to Pakistan's heavy backing of Iran during the latter's eight-year-long war with Iraq. Background Relations between Baloch separatists and Ba'athist Iraq had historical roots and were strong up until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Iraq had begun to collaborate with the Soviet Union in launching a covert operation to provide military aid to Baloch insurgents operating in Pakistan and Iran. The aim of this operation was to destabilize the two countries by helping dissident Baloch rebels in their fight against the Iranian and Pakistani states that were close allies with the United States. The operation remained modestly successful during the early 1970s, but ultimately failed when there was unrest amongst the Baloch nationalist leaders involved in the insurgency due to internal disputes. This disorder accompanied by an extremely tough crackdown by the Pakistan Army (supported by Iran) in its Balochistan province crippled the joint Iraqi-Soviet attempts to destabilize the two key U.S. allies in the region and pave the way for Iraq's dominance over Iran as well as more favourable circumstances for India against Pakistan, with the goal of the region completely falling under the Soviet sphere