Ironically, the fall of the Shah left Iran open to Iraqi attacks and from Feb. 1979 ( Bahman 1357 ) to September 1980 ( Shahrivar 1359 ) there were over 200 recorded Iraqi attacks. The first attack on Baneh (Kordestan) resulted in 15 deaths and 9 prisoners.

On September 22, 1980 ( 31 Shahrivar 1359 ), Iraqi fighter aircraft attacked ten air bases in Iran. Their aim was to destroy the Iranian air force on the ground. They succeeded in destroying runways and fuel and ammunition depots, but much of Iran’s aircraft inventory was left intact. Simultaneously, six Iraqi army divisions entered Iran on three fronts in an initially successful surprise attack.
On the Northern front, an Iraqi mountain infantry division captured Qasr-e Shirin, a border town in Kermanshahan Province, and occupied territory 30 kilometers eastward to the base of the Zagros Mountains.
On the Central front, Iraqi forces captured Mehran, on the western plain of the Zagros Mountains in Ilam province, and pushed eastward to the mountain base.
The main thrust of the attack, however, was in the south. Iraqi armored units easily crossed the Shatt al Arab waterway and entered the Iranian province of Khuzestan. While some divisions headed toward Khorramshahr and Abadan, others moved toward Ahwaz, the provincial capital and site of an important air base.
Supported by heavy artillery fire, the troops made a rapid and lightening advance – almost 60 kilometers in the first days.
In the battle for Dezful in Khuzestan, the Islamic regime was forced to halt the execution of hundreds of Iranian pilots accused of participating in a failed coup d’etat attempt in July 1980 and suspected of being loyal to the late Shah. It was these pilots who despite the serious deterioration of the air force were able to curtail the Iraqi advance with their heroic and skilled flying. However, it must be remembered that the Iraqi aggression took place at a time when the Islamic regime had purged the Imperial Armed Forces of many of its top command, officers, specialists and the most educated personnel. More than 2550 executions took place between 1979 and September 1980 with more than 1050 of them coming from the armed forces.
By not maintaining the high tech radar system the revolutionary authorities allowed the Iraqis to penetrate Iranian air space and placing Iran’s population under the threat of enemy bombardment. As the war continued, the revolutionary government had to admit its need for the professional services of many of the purged officers to lead the armed forces in defending the country.

History will record that during the 1970s, imperial Iran developed one of the most impressive military forces in the Middle East but the catastrophic events of islamic regime in 1979 weakened the armed forces and allowed the impossible to happen.
The war that H.I.M. Mohammed Reza Shah had averted in 1975 when Iran and Iraq signed a non-aggression pact was torn by Saddam Hussein in 1980 and ushered a war that was to cost over a million Iranian lives and 500,000 wounded casualties and billions of dollars of damages.
But let us not forget that it was the criminal incompetence of the mullahs and their systematic destruction of Iran’s armed forces that allowed the war to go on for eight long years.

List of IIAF Pilots who were killed in the Iran/Iraq War

Not included:
Pilots who ejected and became POW
Pilots who ejected and were rescued
This list needs to be completed,
I request everyone to help me to complete this list.

1. . .....……….. Abbaszadeh
2. Khosrow Abdolkarimi ( F-4 ) Bandar Abbas
3. Abolhassan Aboulhassani ( F-5 ) over Ducan Dam
4. . ...........Aboutalebi ( F-4 ) Bushehr
5. Hassan Afshin Azar ( F-5 ) Mossel
6. Nosratolah Aghaee ( C-130 ) Kermanshah 17-Dey -1359 =7 Jan. 1981
7. Abbas .Akbari ( F-4 ) Iraq
8. Khosrow Akhbari ( F-4 )
9. Davood Akradi ( F-4 ) Karkook 8 - Aban - 1360 = 30 Oct.1981
10. Hashem Ale Agha ( F-14 )Soth of Mahshahr 20 - Mordad - 1363 =11 Aug. 1984
11.Ali AliAkbaree ( F-4 ) Bushehr 7- Mehr - 1359 = 29 Sept. 1980
12. Masoud Amiri ( F-4 ) Aban - 1359 = Oct 1980
13. Asdolah AssadZadeh ( F-5 ) Over Faw
14. Asadolah Barbari ( F-5 ) over Rawanduz Mehr - 1359 = Sept 1980
15. Mohammad Balazadeh ( F-5 )
16. ............... Bazargan ( F-5 )
17. Ebrahim Dalal Khosh 1363= 1984
18. Mohammad Hossein Darabee ( F-5 ) 26 - Esfand - 1359 = 17 Mar. 1981
19. Ebrahim Delhamed ( F-5 ) 70 NM from Mosul
20. Masihollah Din Mohammadi ( F-4 )
21. Abbas Dooran ( F-4 ) Baghdad 31- Tir - 1361 = 22 Jul. 1982
22. Ali Eqhbali ( F-5 ) over Aqrah
23. Mohammad Eshghipoor ( F-4 )
24. Abbas Eslami Nia ( F-4 ) Baghdad 1359 = 1980
25. ...............Farahani ( F-4 ) Ghasre Shirin
26. Abbas Fazilat ( F-5 ) over Rawanduz
27. Hassan Ghahestani ( F-4 )
28. Reza Gharabaghi ( F-4 ) ????
29. Gholam Gholamrezaee ( F-5 ) Karkheh - Dezful 1359 = 1980
30. Khalil Ghobadi ( Helicopter ) Iraq
31. Mansour Ghoreyshi ( F-4 ) Mahshahr 18 - Bahman - 1359 = 7 Feb. 1981
32. Bijan Haji ( F-4 ) Over Iraq 18-Mehr 1359 = 10 Oct. 1980
33. Bijan Harooni ( F-5 ) Dezful
34. .......... Hassani ( F-4 ) Ghasre Shirin (Back Seat of Khoojasteh Nikoo) 1359 = 1980
35. Alireza Hashemian
36. ....... …. Heidarian ( F- 4 ) Back seat of Salehi
37. Homayoun Hekmati ( F-4 ) Over Persian Gulf 15-Khoordad 1363 = 5 June 1984
38. Behzad Hessaree ( F-4 ) Bushehr 9 - Mordad - 1361= 31 Jul.1982
39. Ali Ilkhani ( F-4 ) Ghasre Shirin 1359 = 1980
40. Ali Jahan Shahloo ( F-5 ) Iraq
41. Ghafoor Jeddi ( F-4 )
42. ...............Jooraki ( F-5 ) West of Dezful after Take off 13 - Mehr - 1359 = 5 Oct. 1980
43. ................Kadkhoodaee ( F-4 ) Over Mahshahr 6 - Mehr - 1359 = 28 Sept. 1980
44. Mohammad Kambakhsh Ziaee ( F-5 ) 3 - Azar - 1359 = 24 Nov. 1980
45. Mohammad Reza Karimi ( F-4 ) Over Mahshahr 6 - Mehr - 1359 =28 Sept.1980
46. Parviz Keyhani Nejad ( F-4 ) Over Persian Gulf
47. ...................................... ( F-4 ) Ghasre Shirin 1359 = 1980
48. Youness Khoshbin ( F-5 ) Karkheh - Dezful
48. Gholamhossein.Khoshniyyat ( F-5 ) Karkheh - Dezful
50. Ali Khosravi ( F-4 )
51. Ghodrat Kianjoo ( F-4 ) Back seat of Bijan Haji
52. Mansour Mohammadi Azad( F-5 ) Iraq - Esfand 1365 = Feb 1987
53. Masoud Mohammadi ( F-4 ) Bushehr 10 - Mehr - 1359 = 2 Oct. 1980
54. Darioush Nadimi ( F-4 )
55. ................. Nadernia ( F-5 ) 7 - Bahman - 1361 = 27 Jan. 1983
56. Ali Naghdi ( F-5 ) over Sahand & Sabalan-Tabriz
57. Reza Nooroozi ( F-4 ) West of Ahwaz
58. Mohamad Ali Oshrieh ( Farzin ) ( F-5 ) Over Ahwaz
59. Firooz Rahmatian ( F-4 )
60. Gholamreza Ranjbaran ( F-5 ) 15 - Mehr - 1359 = 7 Oct. 1980
61. ……… Roozitalab ( F-4 )
62. . ……… Salehi ( F-4 ) (Pour Rezaee's Wingman on 28 - Shahrivar - 1359 = 19 Sept.1980)
63. Mostafa "Hamid" Saghiri ( F-4 ) 3 - Mehr - 1359 = 25 Sept.1980
64. Changiz Sepehr ( F-5 ) West of Dezful after Take off 13 - Mehr - 1359 = 5 Oct. 1980
65. Mohammad Shademan Bakht ( F-4 ) 2 - Aban - 1359 = 24 Oct. 1981
66. Ali Shamsbeigi ( F-4 ) was killed on Helicopter crash over Kurdestan
67. Homayoon Shoghi ( F-4 )
68. Mohammad Shokoohnia ( RF-4 )
69. Ali Soleimani ( F-4 ) Persian Gulf
70. Shahab Soltani ( F-5 ) West of Dezful
71. Abbas Soltani ( RF-4 )
72. Hassan Taleb Mehr ( F-4 ) Ghasre Shirin 1359 = 1980
73. Ebrahim Tavakoli ( F-5 ) over Ahwaz
74. .............................. ( F-4 ) Paveh 1358 =1980
75. Mahmood Yazdanpanah ( F-5 )
76. Parviz Zabihi ( F-5) NE of Mosel 22 - Aban - 1359 = 13 Nov. 1980
77............. Zanjani ( F-5 ) Soleymanieh (Sharifi's Wingman)
78. Kazem Zarifkhadem ( F-5 ) West of Khaneh inside Iraq 3 - Mehr - 1359 = 25 Sept. 1980
79. Fereidoun Zolfaghari ( RF-4 ) Over Majnoon Islands 20 - Khoordad - 1359 =10 June 1980
80. Mehdi Zooghi ( F-4 ) Iraq
81. Rahim Zooghi Moghadam ( F-5 ) 21- Tir - 1361= 12 Jul. 1982

to be completed ...