The 281st Night of Reminiscence of Sacred Defense Was Held (Part I)

With the memoirs of Line breakers; from south of Iran to south of Syria

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2017-7-3

Note: As oral history website reported, two hundred and the eighty-first programs of the night of reminiscence was held at Art Center's hall on Thursday evening on 1^th Tir 1396 (2017-june-22). In this night, some persons such as Mohammad Karimi, Sepideh Samii and Majid Yusefzadeh told their memoirs of sacred defense and Iraqi imposed war against Iran and the fighting of shrine's defenders.

A memoir of summer in 1367(1988)

Mohammad Karimi, the commander of battalion Komeil 27^th division of Mohammad prophet (PBHM), was first person told his memoir. He told: "we were the soldiers of 27^th division of Mohammad prophet (PBHM) inhabited in Dohloran desert. Imam Khomeini named the soldiers of Battalion Komeil, who were in Channel Komeil, as "angles". I am one of survivor of channel Komeil."

The fighters of the battalion were on vacation; we, the cadres of the battalion, stayed there. It was evening and we were playing soccer according to our daily routine. By the time, a tall man came and stayed next to the tent of the battalion. Due to the wave of explosion near us, they made us almost neurotic and impatience; so, we could be angry quickly. I called him once or twice, but he didn’t hear; I called him again loudly:" Guy! What do you want to do there?" he gently gesticulated us with his hand, and we went to meet him." I came from Kermanshah as a free force" he said. Those who were powerful in mentality, they usually become invited to our battalion as free forces to show their ability little by little and take responsibility.  He was so calmness as I was ashamed of myself to see his calm personality. This shame accompanied me until the last moments. Morteza Khanjani was born in 1345(1966), and he was nineteen years old in those days attended in the war for three years and half. In fact, he attended in the war he was about 16 years old. He was in high level mentally and practically. He was a humble man and spoke in a very low tone. That night, I was affected by him a lot; I made friend with him in so far as we were sitting on mountain and speaking together until 12 o'clock at night. From the first days, he lessoned a lot of works to us that we had already done them with little attention. For instance, the night prayer was a very ordinary activity in there. But, Morteza taught us how we can pray correctly at night and how we can speak correctly, he was one of adherent of Islamic leader (Velayat Faqih) seriously, but he was not man of slogan. He believed that if you were adherent of Islamic leader, you should show your adherence practically; otherwise people wouldn’t believe you. But, if people found adherence practically in your life, they would believe you more; you could be also as a good proponent. Morteza Khanjani was one of the martyrs who were literally adherent of the leader of Islamic religion. Morteza and I had been together for three years. We were in Do-Kuheh garrison in 1367(1988).

Telling memoirs about Morteza let me tell memoirs about Do-Kuheh garrison. A night, I woke up to do ablution to pray at night (night prayer). When I arrived at the toilets of the garrison, I found a person cover his face Keffiyeh[1] and was quickly bringing water from water supply and cleaning the toilets by a sweep. Momentarily his face appeared; I saw his face. In the morning, a lot of soldiers before primary operation Valfajar, attended in Do-Kuheh garrison; by the time, we stood up in the line of morning parade, the commander of division Mohammad prophet (PBHM) came behind of speakers; I saw that he was one who was cleaning the toilets last night. He was martyr Hemmat. When martyr Hemmat spoke indignantly, your body would be trembled. I had never frightened in the war except only once when I was injured by quiver in my chest, and I lost much blood; I momentarily feared to be martyred. Whenever martyr Hemmat spoke loudly, my feet began to tremble uncontrollably, but he tried to hug and kiss the friends, and he usually played a joke on friends and took photo with them to pacify the friends. 5 minutes before martyrdom, he said by wireless telegraphy:" I went to be martyred." He went forward to identify the areas. When coming back, he was shot on motorcycle and martyred.

In the continuance of memoirs, I'm going to say that it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon in Tir 1367(July 1988) while Motreza and I were walking in Do-Kuheh. When we arrive near to the building of the battalion, we heard the news of "poison chalice[2]" from radio. We had only 720 fighters in one battalion in primary operation in the Valfajr. In a minimum amount, there were only 188 battalions in the 27^th division of Mohammad Prophet (PBHM); we were not able to prepare forces more than 3000 fighters; the resolution 598 was signed by Iran and Iraq. We were not happy for the resolution, because the moments and days of war were holy and lovely for us.  After the news of resolution all of us were mourning in Do-Kuheh garrison inasmuch as Hajj Mohammad Kousari (the commander of division) gathered us and spoke with fighters to pacify them a bit. Here, Morteza began to complain; he was shouting, and beat his head on the wall of building twice. He said: "after fighting for some year, it isn’t our right to stay and wait to be died on bed in the next 50 years. We wanted to be martyred." It was annoying for us as if you worked from morning to night, but you didn’t receive your wage; so, you would be sad. In that day, Mohammad Kousari becomes able to pacify us. He said that the enemy began to fight again, and we should go and identify to enemies in the area. In the next day, the enemy came into Iran and captured Sarpol-e Zahab, Kerend-e Gharb and Islamabad-e Gharb. Iraq's forces came near to Kermanshah and stopped on strip. They also arrived at the road of Ahvaz-Khorramshahr.

We were commanded by Hajj Mohammad Kusari to identify the area. He said that the enemy was ready to capture bridge Karkheh. We went there and arrived at the boarder of the bridge when we passed over the bridge, we drove about 45 minutes, but there wasn’t any fighter. We felt fearful extremely. We arrived nearby Musian and went forward. We found a soldier standing up there and closed the road by a chain. He stopped us. "Where do you belong to?" we asked him. "I belong to Khorramabad’s 84^th brigade "he replied. "Where do you belong to?" he asked. "We are the forces of Sepah[3]. We came here to identify the area to perform an operation" we replied. "Wait a minute!" he said. He went and came back with a sergeant major. He said that they were in control of line." how many fighters do you have?" We asked him. "There are two fighters i.e. this soldier and I" he replied. "Why are you here?" I said him. "I had received salary from the government for a long time to defense of country until I die." In short, we found him with a great courage. We performed an operation with 300 fighters, and 120 of them were martyred. The Iraqi tanks were coming forward; some mortar men and we stayed ahead. We also mortared the enemy. We put fear into the enemy not to be able to capture bridge Karkheh. After that, we were announced that the enemy had captured the road of Ahvaz-Khorramshahr and deployed on area Zaid. By the time, operation Mersad was also begun.

The 1^st brigade Amar of 27^th army moved towards area Zaid and other brigades moved towards Islamabad and Kermanshah. We, the fighters of 1^st brigade Amar, moved towards the area Zaid. We had two troops, because other troops were deployed in Mersad. We were going to banish the enemy from Ahvaz-Khorramshahr, and then we wanted to deploy there. Morteza became my commander due to his wisdom, gentility and faith; we were to attack against the enemy's line at night, in the night, we were attacked by chemical bombs. We lay the ground with mask. In fact, I took rest under his hand and head, and vice versa. About 2 o'clock at midnight we were commanded to attack the line of enemy. We rode our fighters to Toyota[4]. I was to attack with first brigade against the line of enemy, and then, Morteza would protect me with second brigade. When I wanted to go, he said me:" you should come with second brigade and I would go with first brigade to attack". I became sad. We said goodbye to each other.  He attacked against the enemy's line. I and my fighters were sitting 500 meters behind the first brigade and behind of second bulwark until General Akbari, the commander of brigade, commanded us to protect with the second brigade. Morteza was speaking on camera - a short film which it was shown one minute before the martyrdom of Morteza. I decided to go to do ablution again. When I came back, I was commanded to go and attack. "Should I attack with my fighters?" I said. "No. you should attack alone." Morteza replied. Therefore, I rode on a Toyota with 4 fighters and move forward. However, we were at distance 500 meters, there were so mortars fell around our car that all four wheels of it were punctured and its body was injured by lots of quivers. But four fighters and I weren’t injured. I stopped the car behind of bulwark and got the fighters off the car. I looked for Morteza as if a baby lost his mother, all of friends were aware of our relation; they insisted that you could go forward. I found the wireless telephonist. "Where is Morteza?"   I asked him. "His corpse is placed where you left Toyota." Wireless telephonist replied.  

The friend told me when Morteza was injured by the quivers of tank and dying, he insisted repeatedly:" follow our Islamic leader (Velayat). We stayed there (area Zaid) about 5 days and counterattacked about 30 times. When we came back Do-Kuheh garrison, the friend hugged me; my clothes were torn, because hot weather, with 55 degree temperature caused my clothes to be spoiled. I was very sad for his martyrdom, because Morteza and I made a promise to be as brother and to be along with each other in all situations and pray each other. I said me that Morteza broke his promise; he should keep his premise. About 2 o'clock at midnight, I went to sleep on the Iraqi bulwarks where were covered by lots of dust, because I was so fatigued. I dreamt that Morteza came with his usual smile, and asked; "what's happened?" I replied. "You are so unfaithful friend! Don’t you make promise to be martyred together?" He replied:" yes" and said: "do you like being martyred?" By the time, I remember my child who was 6 months, and after a short pause I replied Morteza: "yes, I like".  Suddenly, I woke up by falling lots of dust on my head. It is possible that a mortar 60 or 81 did not act or exploded. A mortar 120 was fallen into my bulwark and didn’t explode; I didn’t deserve to be martyred and go along with Morteza."

To be continued…