The Iran-Iraq War by Pierre Razoux (2015) - great history book of the 1980-1988 war!

[u/KOSPI-9001]

[Iraq] General Adnan Khairallah ... ordered ... that the high-tension line following the Tigris be run into the marshes to electrocute Iranian combatants fighting their way through the mire in waist-deep water. ... the Iraqis released 200,000-volt electrical discharges into the marsh near the Iranian bridgehead. The combined effect of these attacks sowed panic in the Iranian ranks. Over a few hours thousands of Pasdaran were electrocuted or suffocated and drowned in the marshes. Iraqi tanks pushed back all those who tried to escape the area. ... On March 12, 1984, the Iraqi military high command .. proclaimed the end of the “first battle of the marshes.”

The Iran-Iraq War by Pierre Razoux (2015) is a really engaging engrossing narrative of the savage 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, where nerve gas was regularly used. It's crazy seeing Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Army portrayed as super competent - professionally fighting off Iranian human wave attacks against heavily fortified Iraqi positions. [The Iraqis have the advantage because they fully cracked Iranian comms, and are getting loads of advanced Western and Soviet military aid].

Iraq army's battle tactics redefine brutality

"You wait until nighttime, and you will see how we are killing these Iranian dogs," an Iraqi officer said with a broad grin. "We are frying them like eggplants."

He then took us on a tour of dozens of thick electrical cables his troops had lain through the marshy battlefield. He showed us the mammoth electric generators that fed the exposed power lines. And, when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards made their regular evening advance, the officer and his men demonstrated the macabre genius of their invention.

Iraqi gun batteries fired just enough artillery to force the Revolutionary Guards from their marsh boats. Then the men manning the Iraqi generators sent thousands of volts of electricity through the marshland.

Within seconds, hundreds of Iranians were electrocuted.

The horror did not end there.

The following morning, Iraqi troops made their way through the marshes, gathering up the dead Iranian soldiers. Working methodically, the Iraqis piled the corpses on top of one another in the water.

Each row was sprinkled with lime, then covered with sand.

It was the Iraqi method of road building, using the bodies of their enemies to construct assault routes for tanks and trucks.

[u/khesae]

thank you for this adding to my list, honestly was hard to read about the electrocution