Tanker war
protracted series of armed skirmishes against merchant vessels during the Iran–Iraq War
The tanker war, part of the larger Iran–Iraq War, was a series of military attacks by Iran and Iraq against merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz from 1981 to 1988. Iraq was responsible for 283 attacks. Iran accounted for 168.
History
The Iran–Iraq war began in September 1980. In December 1980, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim appealed to Iran and Iraq to ensure the security of peaceful shipping in the Persian Gulf. At that time, Iran assured other countries that it would keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
In 1981, Iraq began attacking commercial shipping to undermine Iran's war effort. First, Iraqi forces targeted vessels transporting military supplies to the Iranian ground forces. Later, they expanded their campaign and attacked ships carrying Iranian exports. Iran retaliated by attacking vessels of Iraq's trading partners and countries that provided financial support to Iraq.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tanker war” as protracted series of armed skirmishes against merchant vessels during the Iran–Iraq War. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as protracted series of armed skirmishes against merchant vessels during the Iran–Iraq War. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6414580. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1988 and 1980.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tanker war”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tanker war primary sources, Tanker war archive and Tanker research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tanker war”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tanker war” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.