Clashes raged at five points around the junction. The enemy had landed troops on all the surrounding heights. It intended to cut the communications and supply routes between Islamabad and the NLA forces advancing toward Kermanshah, to cut them off at both ends, and then destroy the NLA forces at the Charzebar Pass.
The regime's basic tactic was human waves, resulting in heavy enemy casualties. It also attempted to concentrate heavy fire on the NLA columns. All the heights in the region became battle scenes. The Air Corps' Chinook and UH1 helicopters shuttled in fresh troops. Other reinforcements arrived by ground transport. Nevertheless, the NLA combatants fought courageously, and the enemy lost 100% of its forces on the northern heights and retreated from the southern heights after sustaining heavy casualties. The NLA took control of the road.
At certain points, for example on the northern heights, the fighting raged for hours, hand-to-hand. An NLA brigade charged from the road into the heart of Khomeini's forces and forced them into the wasteland behind the local gas station on the road. The link between Khomeini's forces on the northern and southern sides of the road was thus broken, and the northern forces could not get reinforcements or ammunition. On the southern side, Khomeini's forces were retreating toward the Islamabad-Khorramabad road when they suddenly confronted NLA forces behind the southern hills and were completely routed.
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