ORDER OF BATTLE // July 26, 1988
Operation Mersad
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 217,000 estimated
Mojahedin-e-Khalq
7,000
Medium-confidence figure
Iran
210,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
Operation Mersad was Iran's counteroffensive against the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) incursion into western Iran in July 1988, known on the MEK side as Operation Forough Javidan. The engagement stands as one of the last major military actions of the Iran–Iraq War. The MEK force of approximately 7,000 suffered around 1,500 casualties against an Iranian response that drew on a force more than twenty times its size. The operation effectively ended the MEK's conventional military challenge to the Islamic Republic, foreclosing any prospect that the organization could leverage the war's closing phase to alter the political order inside Iran.
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