During the 1988 battles , the Iranians put up little resistance to the Iraqi offensives , having been worn out by nearly eight years of war . They lost large amounts of equipment ; and 12,000 Iranian troops had been taken prisoner of war throughout the course of the operations . In the fall of 1988 , the Iraqis displayed in Baghdad captured Iranian weapons amounting to more than three-quarters ( 75 % ) of the Iranian armor inventory and almost half of its artillery pieces and armored personnel carriers . The only area where Iran was not suffering major defeats was in Kurdistan . On 2 July , Iran belatedly set up a joint central command which unified the Revolutionary Guard , Army , and Kurdish rebels , and dispel the rivalry between the Army and the Revolutionary Guard . However this came too late , and Iran was believed to have fewer than 200 remaining tanks on the southern front , faced against thousands of Iraqi tanks . In addition , the US launched Operation Praying Mantis ( which devastated Iran 's navy on the same day as the 2nd Battle of Al Faw ) , and the US shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 helped to convince Iran 's leadership of their isolation and their inability to succeed in the war
Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655
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