General narrates the operations of southern front

The battalion of instructors resolved problems

Sara Rashadizadeh
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2016-7-17

Note: The eight-year Iraqi imposed war against Iran caused many men of this land to go to the battlefield. However, there were people who lived with the war since the first hours of the beginning of the war till the last seconds of its termination, and registered their names in every moment of the war ranging from Bazi Deraz to Karbala 5 operations. Brigadier General Khosrow Orouj the Supreme Advisor to the Commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) who witnessed the first days of the beginning of the war in his birthplace has shared his memories from the siege of Abadan to Mersad Operation with Iranian Oral History website:

*Tell us about yourself and what happened that you went to the battlefield for the first time?

*I am Khosrow Orouj born in the city of Abadan in 1954. I was voluntarily involved in the sacred defense since the very first days of the beginning of the war and was present in the front till almost the end of the war. In those first days, many people took part in the sacred defense voluntarily and some had not been still organized. Since we were living in Abadan and the city had been involved in the war, we were also involved in it.

*Talk about the conditions of Abadan and days of siege in those days.

*Some had sent their families to other cities in those days, but some others had stayed with all of their families in the city to defend. In the meantime, Ayatollah Jami, the Friday prayer leader of Abadan organized and handled us. However, the population of the combatants was scattered and a precise statistic cannot be presented. But in our district named Ahmad Abad, some 200 to 300 men and women were present to defend their city. 

*How did you find out the war in Abadan for the first time?

*When the bombardments started we found out that the war had begun. We were civilians at that time and naturally had no experience of the war. But we knew that this type of an invasion on a least populated town was not natural and certainly something was happening. On the other hand, a local man informed us that the enemy’s tanks had passed over Bahmanshir River and the town had almost been sieged by the Iraqis and we started building trenches.

*Where did you provide guns since you were civilians?

* We supplied our weapons from places such as Abadan navy, gendarmeries and so on. But we still had shortage of weapons in a way that there were two or three guns for every 10 to 12.

* Did the women take part in defending Abadan?

*Yes, a number of women were present alongside us. They helped the injured or provided food, but I personally do not remember the women took up arms.

*In which group were you divided after the combatant forces were organized?

*After the Abadan siege came to an end, the popular forces were organized gradually and the IRGC and Bsaiji (volunteer) forces came into action and I joined IRGC.

*What was your first operation after you were organized?

*After IRGC was set up and I joined it, the war began in Sar Pol-e Zahab and we left for the town in the form of battalions from Imam Hossain (AS) Garrison and deployed there for a few months. The Bazi Deraz Operation was supposed to be carried out at that time, and we were given the mission to identify the area. But before the operation was carried out, the war was dragged into southern fronts and since the forces were preparing for Fat'holmobin and Beit-al Moqaddas operations, we returned to southern front. The reason was that a number of experienced people including us had been appointed as instructors who had to take part in the operations. Thus, we prepared to come back to the southern front. At that time, the battalion of instructors was kept in small groups and wherever we were needed, dispatched as support group and resolved the problems. However, we had no special name and had been organized by martyr Davood Karimi the then Tehran's IRGC Commander and they used us in emergency times. So I took part in Fat'holmobin Operation as the first great operation and then in Beit-al Moqaddas.

*In what other operations did you participate after the two ones?

I took part in Karbala 4, Karbala 5, Valfajr 8, and Mersad operations as a special force.  

*Tell us about Karbala 4 and 5 operations.

*I believe that we did not fail in any war or operation but were stopped. We were stopped in Karbala 4 Operation. It was around 1 AM when we were informed to stop the operation and I was in the headquarters. We received the message of Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul) who said say my hello to the combatants and tell them not to go out of the area because Saddam was now intoxicated with pride. You know well that it takes some six months in order to prepare for another operation after a big one, but that morning when the Imam's message was read in the headquarters, it was so impressive and absorbent that all accepted and Karbala 5 Operation was carried out sixteen days after the Karbala 4.

*Who was your commander in Karbala 4 and 5 operations?

*Since we worked with IRGC commandership directly, our commander was Mohsen Rezaee.

*Were you present more in southern front or western front?

*We were in southern front, but early in the war especially in Bazi Deraz Operation, I was present in western front and in the final years and during Mersad Operation I came back to the western front.

*Do you remember any memory from those days that you like to tell us?

*After the division of Saddam's guard forces attacked southern fronts and specifically Shalamcheh, we were dispatched to counter the situation in the form of IRGC forces. When we reached the south and were going from Ahwaz to Shalamcheh, we were informed to turn back toward Kermanshah very fast. We were ready to take Back Fav Island and did not know what had happened. We came back to Kermanshah very fast and reached behind Char Zebar earthwork one night before Mersad Operation. There, the intelligence brothers attempted a lot to identify what was going on behind the earthwork and a great number of our forces were martyred until we found out what was going on behind the earthwork.      

*When were you informed of the news of ceasefire?

*When we were informed of the ceasefire, I was in Tehran and worked in IRGC. At first, nobody believed that the war had come to an end with a ceasefire. But when the message of Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul) came, all accepted. However, we had earlier heard about this, but did not know whether it would be accepted or not.