Fall of Khorramshahr · Soqut-e Khorramshahr

Culture of origin: Iranian · Historical

Holiday sources: Iranian Arab

Khorramshahr, once Al-Muhammerah and the capital of an Arab sheikhdom, is a port whose people mostly speak Khuzestani Arabic. Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980 and soon attacked the city. Local people of Khorramshahr and the towns around it, with Revolutionary Guards and commandos, resisted with light arms in an uncoordinated, spontaneous defence; the city fell after 34 days, on 26 October 1980, though by English Wikipedia's account the last resistance ended only on 10 November. Each side lost about 7,000 killed and wounded, and for a time Iranians called the city Khuninshahr, 'the city of blood'. Its population, 146,706 in the 1976 census, was nil in 1986. Iran retook it on 24 May 1982.