The 350th Night of Memory

Stable border

Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-5-10

Note: The 350th Night of Memory was held with the narration of Faraja[1] Frontier on the September 28 of 2024 in the Surah Hall of the Islamic Revolution Arts Center under the title "Stable Border". In this program, Brigadier General Jalal Setareh, Second Brigadier Gholam Hossein Yaghobi and Kiast Sepehri; the border guard commander of Kermanshah province shared his memories. Davood Salehi was in charge of performing this night of memory.

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The first narrator of the Night of Memory, Jalal Setareh, the deputy commander of Faraja, said at the beginning of his speech that it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon when they announced the acceptance of Resolution 598. The battalion was in mourning and almost everyone was crying. The battalion commander gathered the children and said: "We are all Basiji and listen to the order of the province." We cannot be hotter than Imam. Therefore, we must listen to the command." A day or two passed and you could see children crying and moaning almost everywhere in the camp. It was noon when they told us about the enemy's attack. An attack that was later named Forough Javidan. At night, they reported that the enemy had passed through Pataq and that there was not much resistance in Karand West. We heard that some of the hypocrites who were there before welcomed the enemy who we still don't know who he is! It was very annoying. The news reached the area of Islamabad. The forces of the battalion were worried and came from time to time. We consoled them and said that it cannot be like this! We didn't have a chance to find out whether the news was right or wrong. At night they announced that so and so! Go and collect the comrades. "For what?" I said. They said: "Khosravi [boarder] has been captured by the emery, if you move too late, they will settle in the heights and there is nothing we can do." It was extremely bitter for me, who was 24-25 years old because we had previously defended against Khosravi and Qasr Shirin with the brigade of Musa bin Jafar (PBUH). After the prayer, I gathered the comrades and told them that Khosravi had fallen. The comrades drew a hand on the weapons. The truck also came and took out the ammunition boxes full of cartridges. We left it to the comrades to take all the cartridges you can. Ones who used RPG and their helpers, snipers and their helpers, and even some machine gunner wrapped the train of cartridges around their waists. The trucks, which were few in number, arrived. The comrades did not eat dinner but prayed and boarded the trucks. We were relieved that no one stayed. Only one person named Mohsenian, who had just arrived from Germany, stayed. We called Asghar RPG to his brother, who shot RPG very well. We had a name named Mahmoud, who inspired this poem of the revolutionary period on the way, and the comrades also read it;

Let this time pass,

More bitter than poison,

Another time will come sweeter than sugar...

We hadn't passed a few road bend when we saw people with any kind of vehicle, including tractors, vans and trucks, pass in front of us and say: "Move! They are massacring people and hospitals." From what people said, we realized that the situation is much worse than what we thought. In the same truck, I told the comrades: "If we arrive, you must hit the first place you see in the city, you must hit it early, be aware of the houses where the shots are coming from." Don't hit normal." I was explaining, suddenly a mortar hit next to the car. He kept the car. The driver said to get off quickly. We had reached the back of the Chaharzabar pass and the enemy was coming from the opposite direction. A series of injured comrades, a Mini Katyusha car and a 106 were on the side of the road. I asked where these for are?! They said: "Some of the comrades of the Ba'ath Corps and some of the comrades of the Badr Corps, and 106 for 6 are special." When the cars and the column got closer, I saw the logo of the hypocrite organization and Rajavi's photo, and I was sure that they were the hypocrite. When I saw the length of the column, I realized that the Islamic Republic has deliberately opened the way to cut them off because the width of the operation was less than one kilometer, its length was hundreds of kilometers. I am relieved. I consoled the children not to worry, they will be crushed. All our efforts were to prevent them from crossing the gorge so as not to reach the height. All they tried to do was to pass through this strait and leave. First, Damghan's company started the operation. Martyr Sepidian was the commander of the company who was martyred in the first stages and I saw his body. The conflict became extremely intense. We had a chance to bypass their armored columns, which were about 150 meters long. Almost all of their columns failed and burned in the fire of the RPG women, led by Haj Asghar. When we went a little further, we neglected and did not pay attention to the wall behind us. We thought it was the hands of insiders. We thought they were from the 6th brigade, but there were some hypocrites who had reached Aqaba and opened fire on us. Haj Asghar and I were both injured. But the comrades did not fail. An RPG man killed a few people and they also killed those who were shooting at us. Asghar's condition was worse than mine, because his hand was broken and his side was shot. Asghar came back, I stayed a little longer. When the weather cleared, I almost fainted. I saw that the helicopters bombed the column of the hypocrites. Pieces of people carriers and jeeps were thrown in the air. People were killed. There were people who came and asked to surrender. It was in this situation that I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes, I was in Kermanshah hospital. From there, I was transferred to Hamadan Hospital. A few days later, the war ended.

In the end, General Setareh said: A few years later, when the relationship with Iraq was established, a delegation from Iraq came to Iran. After traveling and visiting the city of Qom, we took them to the shrine of Hazrat Imam Khomeini (RA). When one of them saw the shrine, he said an interesting sentence: "Look! This is the greatness of a man who stood up for God and see what happened to Saddam! The fate of the dictator who killed people." This is the sentence of an Iraqi soldier.

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The second narrator; the second brigadier was Gholam Hossein Yaghobi. At the beginning of his speech, he said: We were in the mosque to be sent for a specific conflict that had occurred. They said you have not been trained. They planned to train first. Education was in the center of a complex called Tawheed Barracks, which had several sheds. The training period was one week. One night of training, it was the rage of the night when they attacked the headquarters in the middle of the night and fired heavily with fugas; at that time, it was the attack of hypocrites and urban insecurity. About 180 people who were in the shed got scared and believed that the attack was real.

He went on to discuss partying on the front and said: Partying on the front was very beautiful. Not these new party games that we are facing. At that time, we were trying to be at the forefront with party games and special programs. One hundred people were sent from Imam Hassan Asgari (PBUH) mosque in Safaiyah under the supervision of General Sadeghi for the newly established fire artillery of Quds. Of those 100 people, they wanted some for the artillery observation course. I partied a lot to be among those 10 people. We went to the same war zone where the 11th Maragheh group was. I remember a training certificate and a book similar to a telephone book, in which I wrote map reading, working with a compass, various types of boards and artillery, and shooting correction. We trained artillery observation in this way.

He went on to say: In artillery missions, we had infiltration lookouts and fixed lookouts, mobile lookouts and motorized lookouts. We used to find our position with map and compass. We were asking for bullets from the artillery. They knew where we were and what we were seeing. They were hitting towards the point we had given.

I was at the height of the Bazideraz. Katyusha of Iraq was leading the way. I was recording next to Katyusha. I had nobles exactly at the height of Bazidazar, Qasr Shirin and Sarpol Zahab. The Katyusha bullets that hit the entire area of Sarpol Zahab, Hammam, Bahadari, etc. were known. I wirelessly requested bullets. Were they shooting! I was a bit rude and grumpy when talking on the wireless. They gave the bullet. Two days later, a team with three cars, with 4.3 people in each car, came to the height of the game. They said you shouldn't have asked for bullets; now they didn't give, you shouldn't have behaved badly. When I took them to the point of view, I showed them the shooting register and Katyusha's position and several positions where the bullets hit it, they realized that a special situation had occurred and now I have become young. In short, they forgave me then. But after 5.4 days, I went to Abu Dhar Barracks. I was waiting for 2, 3 days to receive the verdict of my assignment when they said you were arrested. I said why? They said we promised to arrest you. The detention at that time was that they did not allow us to go to the front line. I realized that at that point all wireless communications are recorded, recorded and documented. But with 40 years of experience, I now understand why they didn't shoot. In 2012, we performed a drill in Qasr Shirin. God bless martyr General Sheikhi in Qasr Shirin. I did not fire a 120 mortar in that exercise because I realized that our mortars are limited in the province. Now these capacities certainly exist; but I understood why they were shooting hard at that time.

In the continuation of a memory of the difficulty of the border operation in the western region and Ramadan camp, the narrator said: "There is a lot of snow in the western region." We went with the Taliban[2] groups and they killed us. We gave martyrs and wounded and returned, but our legs were bruised and black. For a week, we walked on all fours. We were in quarantine until we could walk.

At the end of his speech, he said: In the service, the rule was that when you wanted to go to the other side of the border, they said what message you want to give to your families! My message was: "Hello, don't worry about me, say hello to the family." I returned to Tehran after about 20 days. I was at work when this telegram went home in the morning. The family was also surprised that he went to work in the morning! The night is supposed to come, what is this message?! May God have mercy on your departed ones, my mother said, you used to put hats on our heads like this?! There was no news from us for two months, but every 10-15 days a telegram came: "Hello. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

The third narrator; the second brigadier; Sephehri Kyaset; He was the border guard commander of Kermanshah province. He said: "Being a border guard is a very sacred work, and it is enough that Imam Sajad (PBUH) has prayed for the border guards.[3] For several years, border guards have successfully served pilgrims both in the east and west of the country in an efficient and voluntary manner. In discussing the jihadi work of our border guards, they built buildings in 47 days that might normally take a year. We witnessed the construction of sanatoriums for the accommodation of employees, which our dear border guards did this work within 2 days with heart and soul and with the enthusiasm of Imam Hossein (PBUH). The high-ranking officers of the Iraqi army, who were also Sunni, spent 23 days to a month, even though they were 15 kilometers away from their homes, but they did not leave the border and said that they would stay and do work for the sanctity of pilgrims. Whatever we do is not enough for Imam Hussain (PBUH). In 2018, at one of the official borders or gates of Iran and Iraq, there was a huge crowd of pilgrims that in 24 hours, we passed something like 405 thousand pilgrims through a very small gate without any problems and without even bleeding from anyone's nose.