Karkheh is Iran’ s third largest river by water volume, after the Karun and Dez. During the Iran-Iraq War, it played a key role in preventing the Iraqi army from reaching the heart of Khuzestan Province.

The Karkheh originates from the Alvand Heights in Hamedan and flows through Kermanshah, Lorestan, and Ilam provinces before entering Khuzestan.⁠[1] It is 361 kilometers long.⁠[2]

The river takes its name from the ancient city of Karkha, located near Shush.⁠[3] After entering Khuzestan near Hamidiyeh, it turns westward, irrigating the Dasht-e Azadegan and passing north of Susangerd and Bostan before emptying into the Hoor al-Azim near Chazabeh. At the Hamidiyeh water distribution point, a branch splits off and flows southwest toward Hoveyzeh, eventually draining into Hoor al-Hoveyzeh. The northern Khuzestan cities of Andimeshk, Shush, and Dezful all lie east of the Karkheh River.

When Nader Shah Afshar attacked Baghdad, a bridge was built over the Karkheh River at the junction of the Andimeshk– Dehloran Road and the river, known as the Naderi Bridge.⁠[4]

When Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, Iraqi forces entered Iranian territory from north and south of the Karkheh — Fakkeh and Sharhani. They advanced from the Dasht-e Abbas area to the Karkheh and reached the river’ s western bank in less than a week. Iranian forces carried out several operations in an attempt to prevent the Iraqi army from crossing the river.⁠[5]

On September 26, the Iraqi army attempted to cross via the Bostan Bridge in order to reach the Karkheh, but the engineering unit of the 92nd Armored Division of Ahvaz destroyed the bridge to stop them.⁠[6]

On September 28, the Iraqis occupied the entire western bank of the Karkheh River in the Dezful and Shush areas. From September 29, Iranian and Iraqi forces on both sides of the river began reinforcing their positions. On October 3, Iranian forces attacked westward from the Naderi Bridge and seized roughly three kilometers of ground.⁠[7]

On October 15, 1980, Iranian forces carried out Operation Pol-e Naderi with the aim of pushing the Iraqi army back to the border strip, but were unsuccessful. On October 31, Iraqi troops launched an attack to seize the Naderi Bridge but were forced to withdraw under Iranian resistance.⁠[8]

On November 30, Iranian forces crossed the Karkheh River on the Dezful axis and conducted a series of limited operations west of the river to weaken Iraqi positions. Operation Nasr — also known as the Operation Hoveyzeh— was carried out on January 5, 1981, in the north and along the southern edge of the Karkheh Koor, but was not successful. The Iraqis crossed the Karkheh Koor and pushed northwest to take Susangerd and Hamidiyeh.⁠[9]

Operation Imam Mahdi (as) was launched on March 17 west of the Karkheh, near the village of Zaan and its surrounding hills, with the aim of capturing the Naderi Bridge — but it too came to nothing.⁠[10]

In Operation Tapeh-Cheshmeh on April 4, 1981, the Tapeh-Cheshmeh and the Handali Canal in the southwestern Karkheh area were liberated.⁠[11]

On June 11, 1981, Mostafa Chamran’ s irregular guerrilla group crossed north of the Karkheh River, attacked Iraqi troops, and seized Dehlaviyeh — but was forced to withdraw.⁠[12]

Operation Tarrah (Shahid Chamran) was carried out on July 27, 1981, in the Tarrah village, ten kilometers southwest of Hamidiyeh, with the aim of defeating Iraqi forces and preventing them from targeting the Hamidiyeh– Susangerd Road. It was the most successful guerrilla operation of the entire war. It resulted in the liberation of the regions north of the Karkheh Koor despite two natural barriers — the Karkheh River to the north, and the Karkheh Koor and Nisan rivers to the south.⁠[13]

Operation Shahidan Rajaei and Bahonar was carried out on September 2, 1981, on the Sarpol-e Zahab– Qaraviz axis to complete the objectives of Operation Tarrah and fully liberate the north of the Karkheh.⁠[14] In this operation, Ali Hashemi — commander of the Hamidiyeh Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — flooded the terrain by diverting water from the Salman Canal into the Karkheh Koor axis, thereby turning it into a marsh and halting the Iraqi army’ s advance. After the operation’ s success, he wrote: “ The pure blood of the martyrs has turned Karkheh Koor (Dark Karkheh) into Karkheh Noor (Karkheh of Light) ”. From that point on, the Karkheh Koor was renamed the Karkheh Noor.⁠[15]

Operation Khatam al-Nabiyyin (pbuh) was carried out on January 11, 1982, west of the Karkheh, with the aim of liberating Hill 350 (Dahliz), which commanded the Iraqi supply road. The operation failed due to inadequate support.⁠[16]

The IRGC launched the limited and diversionary Operation Umm al-Husnayain from March 15 to 17, 1982, on the Hamidiyeh– Karkheh Koor axis, successfully disrupting Iraqi command authority and drawing attention away from other areas. Operation Fath al-Mubin began on March 22, 1982, in northern Khuzestan and west of the Karkheh. After eight days, Iranian forces succeeded in liberating 2,400 square kilometers of northern Khuzestan and pushing the Iraqi army back close to the border. With the liberation of the Karkheh’ s western bank in this operation, the regions west of Shush and Dezful were completely freed and brought out of Iraqi fire range.⁠[17] After the operation, a joint Army-IRGC checkpoint was set up at the entrance to the Karkheh Bridge to control movement into the operational areas west of the river.⁠[18] The bridge served as the crossing point for forces deployed to operations on northern Khuzestan’ s border and the Ilam front.⁠[19]

In the first phase of Operation Beit al-Muqaddas (April 30, 1982), Iranian forces on the Quds Headquarters axis (north of the Karkheh Koor) were unable to seize the area due to Iraqi minefields on the southern bank and numerous other obstacles. However, six days later, in the second phase, they attacked the Iraqi position at the Naderi Bridge and took control of it.⁠[20]

West of the Karkheh River stands the Fath al-Mubin Martyrs’ Memorial.⁠[21]

The 1993 film “ Az Karkheh ta Rain (From Karkheh to Rhine) ”, directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia, takes its name from the Karkheh River as a defining symbol of the Iran-Iraq War.⁠[22]

In April 2001, the Karkheh Dam — the largest earthen dam in Iran and the entire Middle East — was completed on the river, 22 kilometers northwest of Andimeshk.⁠[23]