Overview of the book "Paradise of Destruction"

Memoirs of Morteza Nader-Mohammadi, Deputy Commander of the 32nd Ansar al-Hussein Division

Fereydoun Heydari Molkmian
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2022-1-18

First of all, it is noteworthy mentioning the good printing and accurate pagination of [the book]"Paradise of Destruction". The book cover is designed with the flower branch that protrudes from the branches of a mine, creates an artistic combination, and persuades the viewer and readers to think. In addition, the selection of the back cover, along with a photograph of the wartime narrator, is very thought-provoking.

    "I was looking everywhere, I found the body of a martyr had fallen. It reminded me of the image of the position and place where Imam Hussein [PBUH] martyred that I had heard in the homilies. I forgot that I had come there to Majnoon Island to cut and blow up the road. I had to cut the road in such a way that the blast wave did not throw the bodies of the martyrs into the water.

    On width of eight meters of the road, at a distance of two meters, I made a hole and became ready to fire. I sat facing the martyrs and behind the Iraqis and fire. Now I had to pour the sacks of powder into the holes for the main fire.

   The enemy sniper did not have a hard time hitting me from a distance of twenty meters. Two or three bullets, passed by my head with a buzzing sound. Suddenly I felt something like a hammer hit me on the head and blood ran from my head to my forehead ..."

    [The book] "Paradise of Destruction" begins with a short manuscript by the narrator, and after the list, the author mentions in his note the eagerness or temptation of his pen, as well as two years of interviewing, editing, and writing to get the job done. The text of the book is thematically the oral history of Morteza Nader-Mohammadi, the deputy commander of the 32nd Ansar al-Hussein Division, who narrates his memoirs in ten chapters. This book also uses many pictures that are categorized and arranged with a full description at the end of each chapter. The photos are in black and white and are generally of acceptable quality. After the last page of the pictures related to the tenth chapter, the last ten pages of the book also include a list of the names of the Destruction Battalions, as well as the martyrs of the Cleansing and Investigation Unit, the martyrs of the Destruction [Unit] of Operation Mursad, the martyrs of the Javed al-Asar Destruction Unit of the foreign operations in the west, and martyrs of the Destruction [Unit]  of the Resistance Front with the description and photo, are dedicated to the general title "The Door of Martyrdom Garden is Opened".

     The text of the memoirs begins from years before Morteza (the narrator) was born in the early 1950s in the village of "Bid Korpeh" in 35 km of Malayer city of Hamadan province. The Malayerۥs young man went to propose to the daughter of the headman of the village. The young man owned a coffee shop in the city and was well-mannered and trustworthy. That was enough for the headman to consent to this connection. His daughter also had nothing to say. His father’s consent was his consent. After about twelve years, they had six children: four sons and two daughters. Morteza - as his mother used to call him "Moorry" was the fourth child.

    From 1971 to 1976, he studied elementary school. His scores at lessons were not bad; But among the lessons, he was most fascinated by religious lessons and the Qur’an. This interest led to the opening of the way to the center of Qur’anic activities at the end of middle school, and in addition to reading, interpreting the Qur’an, and Nahj al-Balaghah, he gradually became acquainted with political activity. In early 1979, when he was only fourteen years old, he accidentally received several proclamations related to Imam Khomeini and was supposed to read them and secretly distribute them. He has a passionate thoughts and does not get tired no matter how hard he works in this way. This is not an adventure for him, but it is rooted in his religious knowledge and beliefs, and thus he is practically connected to the current of the revolution. On the eve of the victory of the revolution and approaching February 1979, his activities will increase. Together with the forces of Imam Mahdi (PBUH) Library and the Fourteenth Innocent Imams (PBUH) Mosque, they are implementing the plan to turn off the electricity in the mosques and prepare the situation for the slogan. One by one, a scattered group of people entered the mosque, and according to the plan, he would get up after prayers and speeches and turn off the lights, and send blessings for the health of the Imam. Sometimes he would sit in the mosque with some of his friends and distribute the Imam’s proclamations, or one of the crowd would shout when the electricity was cut off: "chant slogan!" And the crowd chant, "Death to the Shah!" Sometimes they made Molotov cocktails and went to look like sinners, but when the street protests raised, the people captured the police whereas just five of them were martyred, and the city fell into the hands of the comrades of the revolution.

     This was the beginning of a long journey. He was fifteen years old and first grade in high school and ready to serve the deprived and revolutionary people. Initially, his work was propaganda and ideological activities or preparing food for the poor through the "Islamic Republic Party". Sometimes he went to the aid of the villagers for jihadist activities such as reaping wheat.

     When he was in high school for the second time, their school became the center of political debates, and little by little [revolutionary] activities was taken place from the school to the streets. All parties and groups gathered in the city park in the afternoon until the evening, where there was a center of controversy, but instead of answering, he and his friends went to the mosque and offered congregational prayers. Their silence at that time made the groups bolder, so much so that they provoked so much that it led to conflict.

    At the same time, to increase his religious knowledge, he went to Qom several times and got acquainted with the great authorities and finally settled in the shrine, until one afternoon (September 22, 1980) they were sitting with the students who heard an unfamiliar siren on the radio. They heard ... a one-sided, nationwide, full-scale offensive from the ground and air was launched by the Ba’athist government in Iraq.

    The foundations of the revolution had not yet been established, so it was time to practice war. The Malayer Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was born a few months before the start of the imposed war. Although there were only thirty or forty cadres, the same small number were planning to be on the front in Malayer city and under the supervision of the Hamadan provincial corps.

     In early 1980, Morteza went to Hamedan with some Malayerۥs Basiji comrades to undergo a short-term training course. For some time, he received additional training in a camp in Malayer. He goes to the deployment unit and finally goes to the front. It did not matter to him what position the frontier and the front were on and what route he had to take to get there. Eventually, he joined the comrades of the Malayer Corps in Sarpolzahab. The city was uninhabited. The Corps was stationed inside the bulwarks, but at night they could not sleep. Iraqis fired lights and mortars; they used to do it every night. Until the morning, the mortar howled and hit the hill and the road. Sometimes enemy fire was high that could not be lifted from the bulwark. This was not the perception he had of the front before. He thought that his forces were inside the bulwark and saw the enemy on the other side, and in a face-to-face battle with the forces fired each other using Kalashnikova and RPG, but the fight was completely one-sided; only the enemy fired, with cannons and mortars. The Malayer’s IRGC[1] Staff Officer, after making preparations for admission, sent him to Hamedan, where he was sent to the Kermanshah Martyrs’ Barracks for an IRGC training course. Here a spark came to his mind that if he wanted to serve in the path of war, it would be better to accept something that others volunteered to do less. Destruction and being a member of the Destruction Unit had this feature. After four months of training, he prepares to take a demolition coaching course.

    It was the winter of 1984, and the imminent operation was to be done by the fighters of Hamadan province on the Changoleh front near the Mehran border. With the start of Operation Dawn 5, it practically joins the demolition unit.

    From then on, Morteza was constantly ready to join the operation. He declared readiness for any kind of demolition mission that was announced to the Martyrs’ Barracks; from the explosion of the bridge to the explosion in the mountains to build the road and open the way and pave the way for engineering equipment and neutralize the mines planted by the enemy. As soon as the operation march was broadcast on the radio, he was no longer on his feet; The chicken of his life flew from the ground and rose to the sky of the front. Nothing and no one was kind to him and the training barracks became like a prison. Either when the news of a heavy operation at the southernmost point of the front, the confluence of the Arvand River with the Persian Gulf, was heard through the loudspeakers of the Martyrs’ Barracks, or when children were to be cleared of M14 mines or when the road was blown to prevent Iraqi tanks from advancing. His demolition intelligence work included identifying areas in each area and examining tolls and hotspots such as bridges, roads, and minefields, his work, and that of his friends. Sometimes they had to categorize information about new mines, new obstacles, how to arrange combined fields and give it to the person in charge of destroying the divisions. He and his comradesۥ works included destruction work included identifying areas in each area and examining tolls and crucial places such as bridges, roads, and minefields, his work, and that of his friends. Sometimes they had to categorize information about new mines, new obstacles, how to arrange combined fields and give it to the person who was in charge of destroying the divisions. For the forces of the front, Morteza’s name was synonymous with the Destruction Battalion, and for the forces, he was a symbol of difficulties with the spirituality of the front. He and his friends showed a generation that was untying the hardest knots on the battlefield. They were teenagers and young people who played dead and even smiled at it. Although his contemporaries called Morteza Nader Mohammadi as the bent-headed hunter, the commander an ahead of commander, the barefoot path-maker, and the Karbala narrator of Destruction Unit, his main art and characteristic were to overcome obstacles and break free from attachments. From the bullet that injured his head on Majnoon Island to the quiver that shattered his bone in Shalamcheh, and from the infection of the chemical gases that burned his lungs to the toes were injured on the mine, and even the sores of his throat in Charzbar Strait, almost all to some extent, were treated except a wound that was sitting on his heart; Even the beginning of their life together could not heal the wound; it was the wound of being away from his martyred comrades.

     The book "Paradise of Destruction" has been written by Hamid Hesam and its first edition was published in the summer of 2019 by Martyr Kazemi Publications (Qom) in 544 pages and 1000 copies at 65,000 Toman (Iranian currency) in paperback and has entered the book stores.