Abadan is a city in southern Khuzestan Province. It came under Iraqi aerial and artillery attack from the very first days of the Iran-Iraq War and was under siege from October 1980 to September 1981.

Abadan is one of the major cities of Khuzestan Province. Surrounded by the Karun, Bahmanshir, and Arvand rivers and the Persian Gulf, it is also known as Abadan Island. The island is bounded by the Persian Gulf to the south, the Karun River to the north, the Bahmanshir River to the east, and the Arvand River to the west.

Originally called “ Obadan”, the city later became known as Abadan in 1935. This low-rainfall city was once known for its watchtowers, grueling summer heat, humidity, temples, and fish — but in modern history, it became defined by two things: oil and war.

After the first well struck oil in Masjed Soleiman on May 26, 1908, a nearby refinery became a necessity. Because Abadan was a good anchorage for oil tankers, Iran built its first refinery there. The Abadan refinery began operations in 1912 and, within a few years, became the largest refinery in the world.

When the Baath Party came to power in Iraq in 1968, plans to separate Khuzestan and annex it to Iraq were revived, and the Iraqi government began changing Khuzestan’ s geographical names in books and maps — replacing Abadan with “ Obadan”.

The Rex Cinema incident in Abadan on August 19, 1978, sparked widespread protests against the Shah. The strike by Abadan refinery workers and employees was also one of the key factors behind the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

From 1979 through the first half of 1980, anti-revolutionary elements carried out acts of sabotage in the city. A bomb exploded in the Abadan refinery compound on June 13, 1979. The bridge over Moharrebi and Abolfazl waterways was blown up on December 24, 1979. On March 6, 1980, several oil and gas pipelines in northern Abadan were also bombed.

Due to its proximity to the border and the presence of the refinery, Abadan was involved in the war from its very first day until the end. On the first day of the war — September 22, 1980 — enemy aircraft attacked the Abadan refinery. On September 23, heavy enemy fire from south of the Arvand River caused extensive damage to the city. These attacks destroyed roughly one quarter of the refinery’ s facilities. The intensity of the assault increased on September 25, and by the end of that day, the main Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road was completely cut off, with supplies to Iranian forces in Abadan and Khorramshahr being rerouted via the old Ahvaz– Abadan Road. On September 30, enemy fire intensified further, cutting off water and electricity and knocking the Abadan radio station off the air.

Iraqi troops encircled Abadan on October 11, 1980, crossed the Karun River, seized the Sarpool area east of the Karun, and cut the Ahvaz– Abadan– Mahshahr Road. Two days later, Iraq’ s 6th Armored Brigade entered the area and pushed forward toward the Bahmanshir River and the Abadan junction. The first Iranian reinforcements from the 92nd Armored Division arrived in Abadan several days later.

Enemy forces reached two kilometers north of Abadan on October 14. The advance was temporarily halted by the resistance of one infantry battalion and an artillery battery from the 77th Khorasan Division, with Army Aviation support.

With the occupation of northern Khorramshahr on October 26, aerial attacks and shelling of Abadan intensified. When the enemy advanced on October 30 along the northern bank of the Bahmanshir River eastward, Abadan was completely encircled. On October 30– 31, enemy forces built a pontoon bridge at a location called Zulfaqari on the Bahmanshir River and entered Abadan for the first time. When reaching the villages of Alvaniyeh and Sawamer, they took a number of residents captive.⁠[1] When an elderly man named Darya Qoli saw the Iraqis in the area, he immediately warned the forces at Masjed al-Rasoul (pbuh) Mosque in Abadan. Subsequently, the Iranian forces came to the area and halted the Iraqi advance.⁠[2]

On October 31, 1980, Muhammad-Javad Tondgooyan — Iran’ s oil minister — along with a number of colleagues who were unaware of the Iraqi presence north of the Bahmanshir, were captured in Sadat village when entering Abadan. He was later martyred as a result of torture sustained in captivity.

A few days after Abadan’ s encirclement, Imam Khomeini (ra) called on the Iranian armed forces to break the siege: “ I am waiting for the lifting of this siege of Abadan… Do not think that if they come and occupy the city, we can push them out afterward. If they enter, they will inflict losses upon us. Do not let them enter Abadan”.

Throughout the year that Abadan was under siege, it was repeatedly struck by aerial and artillery attacks, and the remaining residents suffered severely. The presence of Ayatollah Jami, the Friday prayer leader of Abadan, and his encouragement to stand firm against the enemy helped keep the defenders’ morale alive. The Iranians forces established defensive lines on three fronts — Abadan, Darkhovein, and Mahshahr — and carried out several diversionary and limited operations with the minimum means available. About eleven months later, on September 27, 1981, Operation Thamen al-Aemmah (as) broke the siege of Abadan. Artillery and aerial attacks on the city, however, continued until the end of the war. A total of 897 residents of Abadan were martyred during the revolutionary events and the eight years of the Iran-Iraq War.⁠[3]

Reconstruction of Abadan began in 1983, though most rebuilding took place after the war ended, between 1990 and 1997.⁠[4] Reconstruction of the Abadan refinery began in late 1988, with the first phase coming back online on April 1, 1989.⁠[5]