Operation Fath 1 (Persian: عملیات فتح 1, meaning "conquest"), or Operation Wahdat (the Kurdish code-name), was a joint Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish special operation conducted by Iran's IRGC special forces and Iraqi Kurdish partisans of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 11 and 12 October 1986 in Kirkuk area of northern Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War. The Iranian and Kurdish forces infiltrated into the area and successfully attacked economic and military targets with minimal losses of their own.
The operation
The operation was planned after an alliance between Iran and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi Kurdistan, which was opposed to Saddam Hussein's government. It was the first major joint operation between Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish forces, and the first of the series of "Fath" joint operations conducted by the extraterritorial Ramazan Headquarters of IRGC and Iraqi Kurdish fighters. One of the main aims of these operations in the Northern Front was to avoid concentration of Iraqi military in the Southern Front.
IRGC forces and Peshmerga partisans conducted a well-planned infiltration and a surprise attack against important industrial and military infrastructures in Kirkuk area. Several facilities of the Kirkuk Oil Refinery, Petroleum Production Unit Number 1, Kirkuk Thermal Power Station, three SAM sites, Jambur, Jabal Bur, and Shwaru oil and gas separation facilities at south Kirkuk, an eavesdropping, signals intelligence and parasite site at Saqqezli, Darman military base, and a train station were destroyed, and headquarters of the Iraqi Army I Corps, 8th Division, Iraqi Intelligence Service, and MeK came under fire.[1] 600 Iraqi forces were killed or wounded according to Iran. There was no Iranian casualties. IRGC field commanders had planned to destroy the Kirkuk Refinery using C4 explosives, but it was decided by top commanders to reduce the mission to attack from the nearby hills, since corpses of Iranian forces on the ground could be used by Iraqi government for propaganda purposes.
The 150 tonnes of military equipment and their 300 IRGC operators were transferred from Iran to Kirkuk behind enemy lines in a covert operation lasting for 40 days.[2] The equipment was as follows:[3]
Various vehicles[4] as well as mules were used for the transportation of the equipment from north-western Iran to near the Kirkuk through highlands. The route was 150 km long.[5] All of the equipment was transferred back by the IRGC forces to Iran after the operation.[3] Iranian forces scattered in Iraqi Kurdistan and then returned to Iran.
Iraq
Iran
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)