Military Training for the Isfahan Youth
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian
2022-1-4
As soon as arriving in Isfahan (in winter 1978) and settled in a safe place, the militant and revolutionary youth of Isfahan were recruited, and I taught them what I had learned about explosions and destruction in Syria and Lebanon. The first one was the method of making a homemade bomb, for which I asked a friend to buy about 50 or 60 pressure cookers with a capacity of three and five people or more from the manufacturing factory in NajafabadThe pressure cookers were filled with explosives - which were made of various destructive elements - and were armed with the wicks and detonators I had previously brought with me from Syria. I taught the youth how to put these bombs in the path of tanks and military vehicles and with a wire and a battery to blow up an electric trigger, causing the pressure cookers to explode. Indeed, these pressure cookers were extremely destructive. My martyr brother, Seyed Mohsen Safavi, was able to provide a lot of dynamite at that time. We used these explosives to destroy and fire targets that belonged to the regime.
The homemade bomb made of potassium chlorate and other explosive elements with a water pipe tee was also used in the destruction. At the nights of State Of Siege in Isfahan, I did other activities with the help of one or two friends and a motorcycle. I picked up a Kalashnikov rifle I had prepared, covered my face with keffiyeh, and we ambushed in the streets and alleys. As soon as the army vehicles arrived, we fired at their wheels, and the troops panicked, and we fled. The people who saw us in the streets shouted Takbir and cried, ‘Palestinian guerrillas have come.’ Of course, we did not kill any military forces in these operations. Once in Golpayegan, we carried out such an operation and set fire to a place with explosives; but most of our work was military training for the youth and the revolutionary forces. Our actions in the Isfahan continued until early February [1978].
Reference: Safavi, Yahya, From Southern Lebanon to Southern Iran, edited by Majid Najafpour, Tehran, Islamic Revolutionary Documentation Center, 2004, pp. 123-124.
Number of Visits: 4201
The latest
- Memories of Davoud Molaei
- Preparing a report for Khorasan Radio and Television
- 100 Questions/47
- The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War - 47
- Servants Narration of the Religious Rituals of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (AS) From Tradition to Lived Experience
- Memories of Nasrollah Fat’hian
- Memories of Hossein Ali Najafian
- 100 Questions/46
Most visited
- Theory Six: The Inevitability of Perspective
- The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War - 46
- 100 Questions/46
- Servants Narration of the Religious Rituals of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (AS) From Tradition to Lived Experience
- Memories of Nasrollah Fat’hian
- Memories of Hossein Ali Najafian
- The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War - 47
- 100 Questions/47
100 Questions / 43
How can narrators and interviewers reach a common understanding?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
Documentary Pathology of the US Embassy Documents
The Necessity of Scientific Rereading and Content Analysis of DocumentsMore than four decades have passed since the publication of the first collections of documents from the US Embassy in Tehran. However, despite the relatively easy access to this treasure trove of documents, systematic research exploitation of it has not been adequate. We still do not have a “comprehensive picture” of the content of these 11,000 documents.
100 Questions / 42
What is the importance of the narrator and interviewers shared understanding of the past in oral history?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all the answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
Validation: Challenges and Necessities
Where does truth stand in oral history? How can the correctness of a narrative be recognized? Does fact-checking matter? If there is exaggeration in the reporting of some accounts, how can it be detected? Is it possible to record an event accurately through the recording of a narrative? Readers and users of oral history works are often faced with these questions, and sometimes encounter doubts about some oral history works.