Abadan

Abadan (pop. 295,000), Persian Gulf port city in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran, on Abadan Island in the Shatt al Arab, the waterway formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. An important oil-refining center since 1909, Abadan was badly damaged by bombing during the Iraq-Iran war, which began in 1980 and ended in August 1988.