The Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road, the main transportation link between Khorramshahr and Ahvaz, was occupied twice by the Iraqi Army during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq War.

The 130-kilometer Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road connects Khorramshahr to Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province, and overlooks vast areas of the Karun Plain. Many important locations lie along or near it: Hamid Garrison, Kooshk Desert, and Jofeir Plain to the west; Dobb-e Hardan (a village 20 kilometers southwest of Ahvaz that fell to Iraqi forces on the seventh day of the war); Hosseiniyeh Station at kilometer 80; and the Zaid Border Post on its western side. These areas were key axes of enemy advance at the beginning of the war. Before the war, this road was Iran’ s most important transit route and the primary link between Khorramshahr and the provincial capital. It was this road, along with the adjacent railway, that turned Khorramshahr into Iran’ s largest commercial port before the Revolution.⁠[1]

With the start of the Iran-Iraq War on September 22, 1980, enemy infantry units reached kilometer 7 of the road on September 24 and opened fire on the Dezh Garrison (located east of the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road), forcing its evacuation. However, Iranian forces continued to resist.⁠[2]

On October 15, 1980, as the fourth phase of the Iraqi army’ s offensive began using the tanks and infantry of the 26th Armored Brigade, Dezh Garrison fell. About 20 people, including one officer, were taken prisoner, and the remaining equipment, such as 106 mm recoilless rifles, was captured.⁠[3]

The Khorramshahr Dezh Garrison was later registered as a national heritage site because it was the first garrison to begin defending Iran’ s borders during the war.⁠[4]

Areas west of the road, including Hamid Garrison, Zaid Post, Kooshk Desert, Jofeir Plain, Talaiyeh, and Hoveyzeh, also fell to Iraqi occupation. In the first five days of the war, the section from kilometer 60 to the Khorramshahr Police Road checkpoint was occupied. Iraqi combat engineering battalions quickly built embankments on the east side of the road and established numerous observation posts, gaining full control over Iranian movements east and west of the Karun River. The Iraqis then created a fortified barrier with defenses, tanks, and armored personnel carriers east of the road. After the fall of Khorramshahr on October 26, 1980, they positioned themselves around Dobb-e Hardan village and established a defensive line that gave them control over the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road.⁠[5]

The Iraqis also cut three twenty-meter-wide breaches along the road to divert water from west to east (Iranian forces had previously released water in the area to slow the Iraqi advance), turning the area into an artificial river.⁠[6]

Operation Beit al-Muqaddas began on April 29, 1982, to liberate the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road and then the city of Khorramshahr.⁠[7] On the first night, Iranian forces advanced toward the road and captured an Iraqi artillery position.⁠[8] In this phase, the road was liberated and secured from kilometer 68 to kilometer 103.⁠[9]

The second phase of the operation, aimed at encircling Khorramshahr, began on May 6. Because the road was important to the Iraqis, they had built a two-meter-high embankment alongside it, constructed bunkers, and positioned numerous tanks there. At the start of the operation, Iranian forces crossed the Karun River, reached the western bank, defeated the frontline units of the Iraqi 3rd Armored Division, and advanced to the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road.⁠[10] In this phase, a large section of the road was liberated, and Iranians began pushing toward the border in the Hosseiniyeh Station area. This move placed the main concentration of enemy forces under Iranian control, forcing Iraq to withdraw from Hoveyzeh, Hamid Garrison, and Jofeir.

In the third phase on May 9, Iranian forces were unable to make further advances due to the Iraqis’ reinforcement of defensive lines.⁠[11] The fourth phase (May 22) saw Iranian forces entering the city from the western and northern sides. As a result, the Iraqis surrendered, and 5,380 square kilometers of occupied territory, including the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road, were liberated.⁠[12]

The combat engineering units of the Jahad Hamzeh Headquarters, Semnan, played a key role in rebuilding the road, which, early in the war, the Iraqis had turned sections of it into marshland. The forces used 80 dump trucks carrying sand and gravel to resurface the road and reopen the route.⁠[13]

Throughout the years 1982 to 1987, the road was repeatedly attacked by Iraqi aircraft, causing damage in several places. It also served as the main support route for major operations such as Ramazan, Kheiber, Badr, Valfajr 8, Karbala 5, and Karbala 8.⁠[14]

On July 22, 1988, a few days after Iran accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598, Iraq once again attacked Khuzestan. Iraqi forces crossed the border, reached the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road, and occupied about 30 kilometers of it. Subsequently, Imam Khomeini (ra) ordered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to expel the Iraqi troops from Iranian soil by any means necessary. After three days of intense fighting, the Iraqis were forced to accept defeat and withdraw.⁠[15]

The bridge on the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road was destroyed during the 2019 floods, but was later repaired by Khuzestan Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization.⁠[16] In the same year, Iraqi civilian and humanitarian aid convoys were stationed along the road in Hamidiyeh.⁠[17]

The mausoleum of the Khamseh Sadat Martyrs, located near this road, is the resting place of five Basij members: Davood Tabatabaei, Seyyed Mahdi Moosavi, Seyyed Saheb Muhammadi, Seyyed Ali-Reza Jozi, and Seyyed Hussain Hussaini. They were serving in the Al-Zahra (sa) Battalion of the 10th Seyyed al-Shuhada (as) Division. On July 23, 1988, during a renewed Baathist attack and advance toward the Ahvaz– Khorramshahr Road in the Kooshk junction area, they were martyred when a direct artillery hit struck their vehicle. The date coincided with Eid al-Adha, which came in the final days of the Iran– Iraq War following Iran’ s acceptance of the ceasefire.⁠[18]