Naft Shahr is the only oil-bearing region in Kermanshah Province. It was seized by Iraqi troops on the first day of the Iran-Iraq War. Despite numerous operations to liberate the city throughout the war, the Iraqis did not fully evacuate it until two years after the war ended.

Naft Shahr is the name of a village⁠[1] located at the westernmost point of Kermanshah Province. It was historically known as Mansoorabad, Tineh, and Naftshah. Naft Shahr is a sub-district of Sumar, which itself falls under Qasr-e Shirin. The village sits roughly two and a half kilometers from the Iraqi border — the closest point to the Iran-Iraq boundary line. It lies among the heights of the region and is bordered by Gilan-e Gharb to the east, Sumar to the south, the central district of Qasr-e Shirin to the north, and Iraq to the west.⁠[2]

In 1926, William Knox D’ Arcy, the British businessman and industrialist who founded Iran’ s oil industry, made an initial attempt to explore for oil in Naft Shahr but came up short. He returned in 1929 with a better-equipped team and succeeded in discovering oil. A refinery was subsequently built, and oil began to be transported from the wells. In 1933, company housing and amenities were provided for oil workers, and Naft Shahr gradually took shape as a settlement. From 1935 onward, crude oil was distilled in Naft Shahr and then transported to the Kermanshah refinery, where major products such as gasoline, oil, diesel fuel, and fuel oil were produced.⁠[3]

Taj, Seh-Tapan, and Tayareh-Khaneh hills are among Naft Shahr’ s well-known landmarks. Chogha Hammam, Zhaleh Panah, Gomrok-e Nou, Gomrok-e Kohneh, Tangab (Tangaw), Khan-Leyli, and Mansoori are border posts to the north and northwest of Naft Shahr, while Seh-Tapan, Salman-Koshteh, Chogha Shirgeh, and San-Vapa are border posts to the south. The local people speak Kurdish, though a number of Arabic words have found their way into their language.

Iran had controlled all of Naft Shahr’ s heights, with Gendarmerie posts positioned several kilometers apart across the high ground. The Seh-Tapan was the closest southern post to the town. Iraqi posts stood directly opposite their Iranian counterparts, roughly one to two kilometers away.⁠[4]

In 1972, Iraq attacked the Qasr-e Shirin, Khosravi, and Naft Shahr areas 72 times, and launched further attacks on several occasions in the summer of 1974. These invasions resulted from disputes between the two countries over certain border hills and the Arvand River.⁠[5] Following these confrontations, the two countries ended their disputes by signing the Algiers Agreement. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, however, the Baathist regime exploited Iran’ s instability and sought to strangle the newly-established Revolution by fueling insecurity and unrest in the border provinces.⁠[6]

From early 1980, the Iraqi army began launching ground and air attacks against Iran in the border areas.⁠[7] Capturing Naft Shahr along with towns in the central and western regions was among the Iraqis’ objectives. They wanted to seize high ground and secure themselves against potential Iranian counterattacks.⁠[8]

On September 6, 1980, the Iraqi troops occupied the Zein al-Qaws area. The Khan-Leyli or Zein al-Qaws area is a hilly region south of Qasr-e Shirin and east of Khaneqin, through which the only Qasr-e Shirin– Naft Shahr Road passes. Following this attack, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Army, and Gendarmerie units entered the area and, with Army Aviation support, managed to liberate the Tangab-e Kohneh post on September 9. The Talkhab border post in the north of the Meimak area fell to Iraqi forces on September 13, and the Kani-Sheikh, San-Vapa, and Salman-Koshteh posts were heavily damaged.⁠[9]

Iraq’ s full-scale invasion of Iran began on September 22, 1980. Following aerial bombardment, Iraqi ground forces entered all border areas, including Kermanshah. The assault on the central front was assigned to Iraq’ s Second Corps, which planned its maneuver in Kermanshah Province along two main axes: Khaneqin– Qasr-e Shirin– Sar-Pol-e Zahab– Pataq and Mandali– Sumar– Naft Shahr. The attacking forces outnumbered the Iranians ten to one and were better equipped. Under these circumstances, the Islamic Republic’ s border posts were unable to hold out and fell one by one, and the Iraqi army crossed into Iranian territory.

On September 21, 1980 — one day before the full invasion — the Iraqis seized the Giskeh area and gained control over the Mian-Tang Valley and the Sumar Plain. They had already taken Khan-Leyli and gained control over the Qasr-e Shirin– Naft Shahr Road. This left Iranian forces unable to move or be resupplied, and Naft Shahr was on the verge of falling.

Iraq’ s 12th Armored Division managed to occupy Sumar and encircle Naft Shahr on September 22, 1980. The situation in Naft Shahr was critical. Road links to Qasr-e Shirin and Sumar had been cut, Iranian forces had nearly finished their limited ammunition, and there was no way to bring in supplies or reinforcements.⁠[10] On September 24, Iraqis increased their push to take Naft Shahr. Around midday, the Gomrok-e Nou post fell, and Iraqi tanks advanced toward the town. Iranian forces were left with no choice but to withdraw, and the enemy managed to fully occupy Naft Shahr.⁠[11]

Once they had consolidated the occupied area, the Iraqi forces reinforced their defensive lines with engineering equipment and deployed combat units to minimize any Iranian response. Iranian forces, for their part, began forming their own defensive lines. IRGC Region 7 Command merged the Naft Shahr IRGC into the Sumar IRGC. After rebuilding and strengthening the unit, the Command tasked it with establishing the first defensive lines, which covered east of Naft Shahr to east of Sumar. The 81st Division of the Army handed over the command of this sector to its 2nd Brigade. Iranian forces gradually rebuilt and reorganized their units, established defensive lines, and planned a limited number of operations.

The first operation was conducted in the Sarat Heights. This and other diversionary operations carried out in the fall and winter of 1980 helped Iranian forces get better battlefield awareness and kept the Iraqis off balance, but the occupied areas were not liberated.

After the liberation of Khorramshahr on May 24, 1982, Iraq announced that it would withdraw from all occupied territories. The Iraqis evacuated Sumar but remained in Naft Shahr, which they left in ruins. Several large operations were subsequently planned by the Iranian armed forces for Naft Shahr, but none were carried out. Only a few limited operations took place in the surrounding area, one of which was Operation Moslim ibn Aqil. In that operation, border heights, including the San-Vapa Height in southern Naft Shahr, were liberated, and the Iraqi city of Mandali came within range of Iranian forces. After this success, the front became stagnant.⁠[12]

In 1985, several diversionary operations were conducted in the area. Operation Karbala 6 began on January 13, 1987, in the south and east of Naft Shahr. Despite great efforts to liberate the town and capture the Iraqi oil facility, it ended without success.⁠[13]

On August 1, 1988, Iraq accepted UN Resolution 598 and Iraqi troops evacuated the occupied territories. Naft Shahr, however, remained under Iraqi occupation.

Iraq had accepted the ceasefire but was refusing to implement the terms of Resolution 598. This non-compliance continued until August 3, 1990, when Iraq finally agreed to re-accept the terms of the 1975 Algiers Agreement. Iraqi forces then evacuated Naft Shahr and withdrew to the border strip. Naft Shahr, which had been occupied on September 24, 1980, was thus liberated on August 3, 1990, after ten years of occupation.⁠[14]

Naft Shahr was left in ruins. 4,000 residential, infrastructure, and administrative units had been destroyed. The oil wells had been sealed with cement and steel beams. The town was riddled with explosive traps, and for years, people were not allowed to enter certain parts of the city. Drilling new wells, building pump stations, and laying pipelines to the pumping sites took two years.⁠[15]

As oil began flowing from the wells again, life gradually returned to Naft Shahr. However, the mines left behind by the Iraqis caused the martyrdom of a large number of Army and IRGC personnel.⁠[16]

Naft Shahr’ s oil wells came back into production on July 15, 1992. According to the then Oil Minister Gholam-Reza Aaazadeh, 33 employees of the National Iranian Oil Company and the Islamic Republic of Iran Army had been martyred or wounded in the course of restoring the facilities. More than 2.6 million mines and unexploded ordnance had also been neutralized in the area.⁠[17]

In May 2005, an explosion occurred in one of the town’ s wells, killing a number of drilling workers. The fire from the blast burned for around 50 days before it was extinguished.

Naft Shahr is now almost entirely uninhabited. Only employees of the West Oil and Gas Production Company, pipeline and telecommunications staff, and the Army personnel are in the area.⁠[18] According to the 2016 census, the Naft Shahr village has a population of 184.⁠[19]