Iraq, now in the sixth year of its war with Iran, has approximately 40 divisions and one million men under arms, more than the combined strength of all the Arab confrontation states facing Israel, according to an analysis by the Israel Defense Force intelligence services to be published in the IDF Journal next week.
The Iraqi army, now four times the size of the Syrian army, grew sevenfold in strength since the war with Iran began in 1980. Between the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and 1980 it had only doubled in size, from six to 12 divisions numbering 150,000 troops.
Since 1980, the IDF says, the Iraqi order of battle includes 5,000 tanks, 3,500 artillery pieces and 600 aircraft. The IDF also noted that the Iraqi armed forces are now battle-trained in the longest sustained conflict in the region.
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