The 336th Night of Memory-1

Sardasht Chemical Bombing

Compiled by: Sepideh Khulusian
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2023-1-17

Note: The 336th Night of Memory was held on Thursday, June 23, 2022, with the presence of a group of chemical warriors from Sardasht region and the treatment and health staff of chemically injured and veterans in the Surah Hall of the Arts Center, with the performance of Dawood Salehi. In this ceremony, General Ali Sadri, Dr. Hamid Salehi, Dr. Mohammad Hajipour and Dr. Khosro Jadidi, witnesses of the chemical bombing, shared their memories.

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In this program, which coincided with the 7th anniversary of the chemical bombing of Sardasht in 1987, narrators shared their memories that are either chemical veterans themselves or were among the effective people who organized the situation after the chemical bombing.

At the beginning of the program, regarding the topic of the program, which is the chemical bombing of Sardasht, he said: Analyzing and investigating an important event such as sacred defense, in a systematic system like war, requires knowledge of events and sub-systems, each of which has its own complexity. When we look at war from different angles, we see how well this orderly system is put together. For example, if we look at war once from the point of view of logistics, once from the point of view of propaganda, reconnaissance group or telecommunication or any other angle, we will see that war gets a new meaning and concept. Now, if we look at the war from the medical perspective, we can see how the war can be looked at from inside the trenches, tents, and medical rooms. "The documentary of the White-dressed" tells the story of the doctors who during the war, with their dedication, in addition to helping the injured, also took care of the war wounded. The narrators of this program are well-known people whose names were also mentioned in this documentary.

The first narrator of the program, Gen. Ali Sadri, the manager of organizing the chemical victims in the Sardasht incident, said from the days of the chemical attack: the Baathist enemy had reached the city of Sardasht and this city was regularly bombed by Iraq. On one side, cannonballs were coming, and on the other side, anti-revolutionary groups such as Komleh, Khabat, Monafekin Khalq, etc. were supported by the enemy to somehow attack the front of our country. The Islamic Republic decided to carry out a series of operations in the west of Sardasht. As the medical officer of the Hamza camp, we were ready to provide relief and after a few months of presence, we opened a field hospital there. However, landslide problems made us move and set up Hazrat Musa bin Jaafar (PBUH) hospital in a distant place.

Contrary to its name, Sardasht region is not a plain, but a city at the foot of the mountains, and this also caused us to have a high rate of chemical waste among the people, because the city was regularly under artillery fire and enemy bombardment, and for this reason, the people had short shelters for themselves in They had built residential houses, and when they were bombed, they went to their own shelters. Because these bombings happened regularly, this time too, people thought that a normal bomb had fallen and took refuge in the same shelters again. The chemical statistics of Sardasht increased because people did not go to the pre-built shelters.

On the day of the bombing, it was around 4:45 a.m. when several planes maneuvered in Sardasht city and started the bombing by lowering the altitude. I remember they dropped 5 bombs in and around Sardasht. One of the bombs hit the headquarters, three inside the city and one above the city to the west. Since mustard gas is heavier than air, it easily leaks and rises. This gas is more stable. After the bombing, Mustard took the city. With this incident, the city's service system, water supply, electricity supply, governor's office, 3-bed hospital, etc. were also disrupted.

At such a time, two units were stationed in the city and the rest were busy in the line. One of the units was ours, which had medical services, and the other was a unit called the chemical unit (S.M.R.), which neutralized chemical substances. Other warriors in the city were scattered and did not gather together. In the early hours, there were no injuries and people thought that a normal bomb had landed. The city was closed and we used to treat people at the headquarters. We took them to the city emergency room and changed their clothes with fighters' clothes and sent them back. There, the fire system brought us two or three tankers of water from the fighters. We had a good treatment team. The hospital staff was also used and the first treatment team was a little relieved. Urmia cardiologists were among the expedition teams. There, among the medical staff, we lost about 5 martyrs and 20 wounded. The next team was a team that was a complete team with Mr. Memarzadeh and was stationed at Musa bin Jaafar (PBUH) hospital.

At approximately half past five, people began to seriously attend the hospital, because mustard gas does not immediately show its leakage symptoms, unless those who know its main symptoms such as the smell of garlic and the state of heat. The people of Sardasht were not familiar with those signs because they were ordinary people and were not warriors. The visit was such that by half past six, about 1000 people had received relief services. All the emergency vehicles of the city were sent to Baneh and Mahabad cities.

There are photos of the Halabja bombing that happened at 8 am, but we don't have any photos of the Sardasht bombing. The space was very heavy. All the beds and corridors were filled. When people noticed chemical signs, they also referred to neutralization units. We were ready and had masks, but people also wanted masks. This made us take off the mask and put it aside. The same order was given to all friends in other units. We could not have masks, but not people; so all of us put on the mask we had with us as a mask.

To be continued…