With a documentary narration of "Commanders"

The oral memories about the command of Hajj Ahmad Motevaselian- part II

Jafar Gulshan Roqani
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2017-3-6

Two operations

The effective attendance of 27^th division of Mohammad Prophet (PBHM) in operation Fath ol-mobin is important inasmuch as the director allocates the role of Hajj Ahmad Motevaselian in the operation for telling his memoirs and, herein, uses of memoirs of others.

The narrator says: " finally, the operation Fath ol-mobin was done in Farvardin 1361(April 1982). The operation was in Dasht-e Abbas District to release the huge part of Iran where it was captured by Iraq at the beginning of the war. In the operation, the 27^th division of Mohammad Prophet(PBHM), command by Hajj Ahmad Motevaselian, was in responsible for one of the most important pillar in the operation.

Rezaei says: "when I commanded the division and station to attack Iraq, we were worried about Ahmad and his fighters. Because we were going to attack a decided time. I check all the divisions; Hassan Bagheri said that Ahmad hadn’t commanded to attack as yet. "Why" I said. "When I asked him why he didn’t attack, he replied that I was transmitting my forces now, and I was going to attack at a suitable time" he replied. I said Hassan: "if Ahmad’s forces attack to other places, the enemy, perhaps, will be woken and besieged our fighters and led a raid against them." Ahmad spoke calmly, languorously and impassively. Hassan said. Although, I was worried a lot, and as I knew that Hassan is an experienced man and his quotes were true and, on the another side, I was familiar with Ahmad, and it was a dangerous situation, and he took an extraordinary risk there, but my belief in Ahmad and Hassan Bagheri made me sure about the operation. After about thirty minutes, I was worried again and tried to communicate with him; they comforted me again. It was gone along until 2 and 3 o'clock; then, while I was worried extremely. It was possible we involved in danger, Hassan communicated with me and said:" Ahmad said that we attacked to the line of enemy and were above the gunnery of Iraq." It means, he, with a lot of fighter, passed through the enemy's line and arrived near the enemy's gunnery. As soon as Hassan reported me, after half an hour I found that the battery of Iraq's gunnery was stopped; therefore, Iraq wasn’t able to fire Dezful, because, our fighters entered into the Iraq's gunnery and gripped them. The battery of the gunnery was stopped by our fighters, forever."

The director is not unaware of the situation of Ahmad in operation Beit ol-Moqaddas that led Khoramshahr to be released, and he try to tell them by his pen and voice of someone else.

The narrator says: "the operation Fath ol-mobin was the first operation in south which Ahmad and his forces attended in; nevertheless, they fought in the operation inasmuch as they become by word of those days. After the victory in operation Fath ol-mobin, the participated division were getting ready immediately for next operation, which was to be done for releasing Khoramshahr. To do detecting operation carefully was one of the important part of operation. The design of operation and making sure of arriving the fighters behind street of Ahvaz-Khoramshahr at down."

Hamadani says: "in that day, Hajj Ahmad said to Mohsen Rezaee, the former commander of Sepah, through wireless: "Hossain Qojehei is martyred, Babaee is martyred, Hamadani is injured, Vezvaei is martyred; we lost all the commanders." He was right, because he was under pressure of war. When he was told that Imam Khomeini commanded to continue the operation Beit ol-Moqaddas until Khoramshahr would be released; so, Mohsen Rezaee obeyed the command of Imam Khomeini and didn’t complained about the pressure. He loved Imam, he was obedient, a cultured person of a school in which he was learnt to continue the target even if he was alone.

The narrator says: "in those days, Ahmad was in a distressed condition for martyred comrades who were his best friend in the frontage of Kurdistan for a long time.

Here, the speech of Hajj Ahmad, with a dusty and tired face of him, is being shown. He says: "this operation is ended by the help of God, as you know; therefore, we decided to do something and finish the job. Herein, as we decided, we were to do a large operation. We experienced that we had been successful in the large operation, whether in Boston, Fath ol-Mobin or in the last operation as it was a notable achievement. For this reason, a large operation area was chosen, and it was pretty larger then Fath ol-Mobin; hopefully, we are going to go on the operation, and it won't be stopped."

The narrator says:" Ahmad and his fighters withstood against the enemy in the hardest conditions inasmuch as he, the commander of the division, was also injured at end of third step of operation Beit ol-Moqaddas."

Hamadani says: "after operation Beit ol-Moqaddas, Ahmad deployed a team to detect there, I was also one of the team and became responsible for remained fighters there. My brother, Hajj Said Ghasemi. (General Said Ghasemi) also became responsible for intelligence and security in Shalamcheh. Hajj Ahmad commanded to start detecting operation, and he said that we would go Tehran and came back after taking a rest for three days, and continue the operation as we already predicted."

In Lebanon                                                      

Undoubtedly, the most important part of the documentary is related to the story of sending the fighters of Mohammad Prophet (PBHM) division in command of Hajj Ahmad, to Lebanon, and then the addressees are waiting to see the narration, through the director, about the story of being despoiled Ahmad. Accordingly, the director narrate this story through the words of the narrator, Rezaee, Hamadani as follows.

The narrator says: " of course, we heard another news only after the beginning of detecting operation; Zionist army attacked to south of Lebanon and Syria; the commanders said that they should go to Lebanon for fighting against Israel."

Rezaee says: "I thought to decide about whom I would sent him Lebanon. All the commanders were mighty. There were some experienced commanders to choose; Ahmad Kazemi had already been in Palestine, Mr. Hossain Kharrazi, but I chose Ahmad Motevaselian. There were some reasons to choose him; he has a counterrevolutionary group both when he was in Marivan, and the frontage of war. Beirut was also in the same situation; first, one the one hand, Falange[1] party of Lebanon was attacking against resistance force. On the other hand, Israel army attacked to Lebanon. I must consult similarity of the frontage of Lebanon, Marivan and mountainous situation of that area. Second, the division, which we were going to send, should go both Damascus and Beirut. It means, the chosen commander must go to the capital of two countries. Typically, the people of capitals have special characteristic. So, there were a lot of capital's persons in the division; they, logically, were familiar with the custom and rule of the capital's people. It was also a factor to choose the third factor was the personality of Ahmad. He was brave and hardworking and he was appropriate for the mission; accordingly, I decided to send Ahmad and 27^th division to Lebanon.

Hamadani says: "when Ahmad Motevaselian were fighting against Democrat Party, he was worried, and said they were Iranian anyway, why did they join to the enemy? He fighting against them decisively. Of course, Hajj Ahmad was not perfectly agreeable to fight. When he came to operation Fath ol-Mobin and Beit ol-Moqaddas, he was not willing to kill Iraqis, because he believed that they were Muslims; he said that why we should fight against them, rather we should fight against the main enemies of Islam, against them who made a promised to destroyed Islam.

Mohsen Rezaee says:" when I said Ahmad that we wanted to send him Lebanon to fight against Israel, he became very happy. He said: "do I go there and fight against Israel? It is my desire…it is my desire." he said these words repeatedly. When I found him amazed, I said him:" get ready! I'm going to visit Ayatollah Khamenei, he was president of Iran in those days; let's go to see him with me, and listen his words yourself, because he is the head of Iran's supreme council of defense." at last, Ahmad and I went to visit Ayatollah Khamenei; he said Ahmad: " yes, you are chosen to go Lebanon." By the time, Ahmad raised his hands toward sky and said: "praise the Lord, I get my wish."

Showing the useful and unique video about the fighters riding on airplane to fly towards Damascus, the narrator expresses how they were sent out:" the required instructions were given to Ahmad and, Finally, the fighter of 27^th division get on the airplane and flied towards Syria and Zebani garrison of  Damascus on 21th Khordad 1361( on 12^th july 1982). 

Jafar Johorati Zadeh (brother in arm) says: " when the fighters were being sent out, when Ahmad Motevaselian made a speech for his fighters and he said: " those who came with us Lebanon, they should write his will and get ready to be Martyred; we are going to Lebanon, and, perhaps, we won't be able to come back Iran."

Rezaee says: "at last, Hajj Ahmad went and deployed in Beqaa valley and Baalbek city of Lebanon and fighters were arranged there. They made a position to fight against Israel and started to train the Lebanon's fighters. Hezbollah party of Lebanon, later, was established by these trainings, and, in fact, this party is created by the 27^th division of Mohammad Prophet (PBHM). The fighters, who were deployed there by the division, continued to train Lebanon's fighters.

The narrator says: "after attending in Syria for 20 days, Imam Khomeini sent massage: " the road of Quds passes through Karbala." Forgotten about the frontage of war in Iran is enemy's attempt at deception: the Iranian expedition to Lebanon should be came back Iran as soon as possible i.e. before anybody will be injured.   

 Rezaee says: "when we found that, on the one hand, Syria and Lebanon were not going to fight against Israel, seriously. On the other hand, we needed our fighters for the frontages of Iran. The fighters were detained in Lebanon; therefore, we decided to establish protecting and training station by Lebanon's fighters, but return our fighters."

The narrator says: " on 14^th Tir 1361(July 1982), while he Iranian fighters were getting ready to come back, we heard that the fighters of Falange and Israel besieged the embassy of Iran in Beirut."

Rezaee says: " it was possible the embassy of Iran to be failed. There were a lot of documents and papers of Iran; Hajj Ahmad and others decided to go Beirut and bring the documents to be kept from the enemy."

 Jafar Johorati Zadeh says: "martyr Hemmat requested Hajj Ahmad that let us to go Beirut and bring documents, but Hajj Ahmad replied in his habitual manner:" Nope, I should go by myself".  At last, he was sent out Beirut, and one of fighters also requested him to be his driver, but he didn’t accept him; Hajj Ahamd accepted Taghi Rastagar as his driver."

The narrator says: "the main road of Beirut was blocked by Israel's progress; therefore, Hajj Ahmad and other three parsons had to revolve Beirut go to the capital through the north of Lebanon. They were not informed that the north was captured by Falange's fighters under the leadership of Samir Geagea. The Falange's fighters had made a checkpoint named Hajez Berbareh to control the coming and going toward Beirut. After arriving the white Benz of embassy to Hajez, the Falange's fighters captured the car and took Hajj Ahmad and his comrades down from it. Then, they were led to an unknown place. There have not been any news about these four persons as yet.