Abbas Jahangiri and his memories of Holy Defense, Part II

The Night of the High School’s Martyrs

Mehdi Khanbanpour
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2017-2-6

In the first part of the interview with Engineer Abbas Jahangiri conducted by the correspondent of Iranian Oral History website, he talked about how he was joined the fronts of the sacred defense and the days of a jihadi camp in the town of Islam Abad and the events after the Operation Valfajr 2 in Haji Omran Altitudes until Operation Kheibar. Of course, in all of these narrations, the close friends and those around him all of whom were studying in Mofid High School played a major role in his memories. What follows is the second and final part of the interview with Jahangiri, covering his memories:

*Was martyr Hemmat martyred in this operation (Kheibar) too?

*Yes. We were taken to the same place where Haj Hemmat was martyred. When we came back, the Bilal Battalion had been equipped again and was sent to Jofeir area. I would like to say that the war front was a kind of life.

I and Hamid Salehi were kidding each other. I got my head bald. Hamid Salehi said, “No, brother, I want to fight like Elcheh (Che Guevara) and would like to have my hair.” I said, “OK.” We went to Jofeir area. Since Chinook helicopters landed and lifted off, mazut had been sprinkled on the ground. Whenever a helicopter landed, mazut dusts were sprinkled on the body and face of the guys. Hamid’s hair was very messy. I told him, “Sit down Elcheh to do something for you.” I went and got a comb and scissors from one of the relief workers and cut Hamid’s hair. After cutting his hair, we left the area for Majnoun Island with a Chinook helicopter.

We were taken from Jofeir to the Island with a helicopter. What I remember very much was that if a fighter jet came to target a Chinook helicopter, it came down and dusted off and then left the area. At any rate, we went inside the island. We started moving. We had to move toward Tala’iyeh Bridge from the south. This was the final phase of the operation that the combatants had not been able to annex and end the Operation Kheibar.  We were some 28 in a platoon. We moved against the wind and sand storm for two hours, in a way that when we reached the defense line, one of the guys was dizzy as if he had been punched. He collapsed but one of the guys came and brought him back to consciousness. Since we had moved against the dust and storm, our entire bodies were dusty. Finally we reached the front line. What we saw there was really bizarre.

I saw five or six persons one of whom was only alive and the rest had been martyred. The one who was alive named Mousavi and from Mashhad. He called someone named Nasser. He shouted, “Nasser, Nasser, Nasser…” I thought that his friend had been martyred. It was a great scene. The Iraqis were shooting at us from the right. One moment I looked at my right side. It was unbelievable. More than a hundred Iraqi tanks and BMPs were shooting at us. I remember that a person in front of me was Dr. Majid Moradi. He had a helmet on his head. I had also one. We had become so tired of moving long against the wind that were not able to sit down and crawl. The column was moving out and I saw that the bullets were passing through my head and my friend’s. But they hit none of us. The scene was so terrible that I did not dare to look at. I was just looking forward until we hid behind a bulwark. We awakened Nasser in this bulwark. He looked as if he had not slept for two or three nights. Nasser deployed us in the line. He made everybody to sit down in a specific place but he himself had stood up. The height of the bulwark was less than one meter. The bullets were passing by him but he had still stood. I begged him to sit down but he did not. He was a weird man. Nasser went to Mousavi the one who was calling Nasser continuously. We started making barricades. We were kidding with each other while making barricades. A mortar was hit in front of us. I had been sitting behind the short bulwark with my hips up. When I turned back to sit, I felt a severe scorching on my hip. I saw that the shrapnel shells had hit the bulwark above us and slipped down. I had sat on one of the shrapnel shells which was very hot, and started laughing.

Misters Mina Parvar and Hamid Salehi were on the right side of me. I took aim very well in our neighborhood since childhood and threw stones very well. At those moments, I was joking. They were filling the sacks very seriously in order to make a barricade for themselves.

 *The joking and kidding were at the height of hardships and serious work.

* Yes. I don’t remember whether a mortar was shot toward us or not. But I did not throw a stone at that time. It just came to my mind. Then, someone came and said, “Hey guys, Qavidel was shot.” Qavidel was from Southern Mehrabad neighborhood. We took a trolley to take him back. I do not remember his first name but two of us went to take him back. I think we were less than one hundred meters far from him. He had gone between our bulwark and the Iraqis’ to shoot an RPG7. The Iraqis had launched a mortar and he was hit in the head by a shrapnel shell. I put Qavidel’s head on my side and his feet on the side of the person who was in front of me. I was in the back. I said “let’s recite Va Ja’alna (an ayah of the holy Quran) then get up.” We did so and lifted the trolley up to move. The enemy’s sniper shot me in the neck. I remember that I did not throw Qavidel. I put him on the floor.

I had seen with corner of my eyes the scene the bullet hit my collar. I had been bent when the bullet passed me and blew off beside my right hand. Several of us were injured. I and a Basiji (voluntary force) were injured. An RPG7 bullet also hit the bulwark beside us. I remember I was thrown up and came down. The ear of the Basiji was bleeding and we could not do anything anymore. Mehid Mousavi came and asked me, “Can you get up?” I answered, “Yes, my feet are healthy.” He said, “No, if you get up, you are shot. I crawl and you hold me with your left hand, I tow you to move together.” He towed me for some 10 to 15 meters. Then I could sit to be out of the enemy’s range.

*You were injured. What happened next?

*Yes, Mr. Mousavi towed and brought me back where Hamid and the rest of my friends had been deployed. The guys did not know that I had been injured until that time. Hamid Salehi came and put his will in my pocket and said, “You return back. I have put my will in your pocket.” A pickup driver came. There were two or three injured soldiers behind the pickup. I sat next to the driver and someone else next to me. The driver was only accelerating and all the guys whining. The weather got dark. I had internal bleeding and nothing was clear.

*The sniper wanted to target your head, but you had been shot in the neck?

*Yes. I remember that I had a military helmet on my head and have still held the bullet among my memories. Nothing came out. I could not see the place where the bullet had been hit. I just saw that my right hand did not move and felt a severe pain in my neck and shoulder. I had an internal bleeding under my skin. I collapsed several times. Finally we were taken to Ahwaz’s Shahid Baqaee Hospital. I was die-hard but it happened in a way that I saw death in front of my eyes until the next morning. I was praying and had prepared myself for death. My body from the neck to the back had been bruised. I was saying, “I was shot in the neck and it blew off inside my shoulder…” and they saw nothing except a slight wound and they thought that I am saying nonsense. I was brought to Ahwaz Airport the next morning and sent to Tehran with a C130 plane. Then I was admitted in Mehrad Hospital.

An interesting story also happened to me here. There was a physician named Gorji who visited me. He was very old and I think he was a shareholder of the hospital. He said, “What has happened?” and I told him the story. My neck had been swollen severely. My arms had also been swollen and bruised. This physician also said that I was raving and had probably fallen down the pickup. I said nothing. Of course Dr. Gorji said, “Bring him down for radiology.” When he came up, he just said, “Hey guy what a chance you have. The path of the bullet is completely obvious in the x-rays and your vein and spinal cord have not been harmed seriously.” He had seen the bullet. I was in the hospital for some twenty days and then asked me to leave. I was released with severe pain.

*weren’t you operated?

*They did nothing. I just had severe pain. I had no swelling and my arm had been slimmed, but it did not work anymore. It had no motion. I was annoyed a lot. One day, I went to the same Mehrad Hospital. I told Dr. Gorji, “Doctor, look what has happened to my arm.” He said, “You Basijis just like to get bullets and shrapnel shells out of your bodies.” He injected an ampule and the place of the injection became numb. He put inside my wound something which had been sterilized wrapped in a green cloth and dragged out. It bled a little and said, “Come, this is your shell.” He bandaged the wound and said, “Go home.” I got the shell and came back home.

One or two months later, I found out that my dress became unclean repeatedly. At that time, I exercised and went for physiotherapy in order to cure my arm. I said the story to the woman who did physiotherapy. She said that this was not a good sign and a doctor should visit you. I went to Mustafa Khomeini Hospital and a young, tall, good-looking, and 32-year old doctor named Emami visited me. He examined me and ordered colored x-rays for me. After seeing the x-ray photo, he recognized that I had been inflicted to acute osteomyelitis. He said, “You must be operated tomorrow.” It happened in 1984. I was just twenty. I remember that nobody accompanied me. I mean I did not see any necessity that someone followed me up. However, I told my mother and sisters. The bone had been infected and I had not understood. They shaved the bone and I was in the hospital for a while.  

An interesting point is that when I went to the front of Operation Kheibar, I had not said goodbye to my family. It was a good feeling. We went to Dokouheh Garrison. We had not been divided yet. As I had been lying down on the floor, someone shouted from inside the garrison's building, "Abbas…" I saw that he was my older son-in-law. I asked, "What the hell are you doing here?" He answered, "Why have nit said goodbye. Your father has had a heart attack!" I said, "Reza, I know nothing has happened. Please tell me the truth". Eventually, he took me back. Reza had a friend in the city of Andimeshk who was serving in the air force. We went to his house. At that time, the TVs in that area just received the signals of Iraqi TVs. They showed bizarre scenes. Reza said, "Where are you going? The Majnoun Island is shambles!" The Iraqi TV showed how the Saddam army was martyring the guys. Reza was trying to make me change my mind. I told him, "Reza, I have made my decision. If I came with you, it was because we visit each other or else I will go and won't come back. Go and say that I did not see Abbas. And if you want to cost you a great deal, tell them that Abbas did not come."  The same nights, my father dreamed that he had stood in a queue, when it was his turn, someone told him, "Haji, come back, it is not your turn. Abbas will come but he won't be safe and sound. He will return but something will happen for him."

*How long did it take that you recover from injury?

The operation was done the next year in 1984. I was involved in my injury during this period and did not go to the war fronts. I was injured in February 1984 and had an operation in August 1984. It took six months. The guys took part in Operation Badr but I did not. I was not in Operation Valfajr 8 in 1985 too. I went to the university and studied.

*In what operation was martyr Salehi martyred?

*He was martyred in Operation Karbala 5. I went again to the war front in 1987, to Nouh headquarters and Panj-Zel'ee (pentagonal) area.

*Was martyr Salehi with martyr Bolourchi too?

*These several guys were with each other; martyr Bolourchi, Dr. Karami, Dr. Moradi, Seyed Hassan Karimian, and Mohsen Feiz. There were also a number of others whose company commander was martyr Salehi and battalion commander Mohammad Nourinejad. The night when they were martyred was very strange. We could not perform Islamic code for many of them. Then, what remained in my mind was that how the families of the martyrs could forget the bravery of their children?

*You mean the heartache of losing their loved ones?

*Not heartache, but the perplexity and grandeur which their martyrdom had. How did the mother of Seyed Hassan Karimian could tolerate? Also the father and mother of Mohsen Feiz? We who were just friends with them could not tolerate, how did their parents put up with it? Or how did Mrs. Bolourchi tolerate? The family of the late woman was of Bahaee origin and rich but had rejected her at the age 15 or 16. Then she converted to Islam and married Hossain Bolourchi. The mother did not have a good relation with the family of her husband and grew her children with hardship and Ali was 19 when he was martyred.

* When you were informed of the martyrdom of Ali Bolurchi, who said this to her mother?

*I and Mohammad Taqdiri. Ali's mother was living in Karaj's Mehr shahr. Ali came from there to study in Mofid School. He sometimes stayed in the house of his sister in Tehran. We knew where his sister's house was. I and Mohamamd Taqdiri went to her house and informed her of his brother's martyrdom.  We also held a special ceremony for him in Mofid School at that night. The guys were awake until morning and were praying and the funeral ceremony was held in the morning. 

*Have they been buried next to each other?

*Yes, they have been buried next to each other in Behesht Zahra Cemetry. Ali Bolourchi, Mohsen Feiz, Seyed Hassan Karimian, Mansour Kazemi, Kamial Qods, Alireza Rabi'ee and a little farther Abbas Yazdani all of whom had studied in Mofid High School and were martyred in one operation. The commander of their company was Hamid Salehi. The body of Hamid came with one week delay. All knew the same night that Hamid had been martyred. In our memories with Hamid, there was always laughter, since special things happened for him.  Hamid had a nephew named Saeed Amiri Moqaddam. He was one year younger than Hamid. During Hamid's funeral, suddenly we saw that the body did not exist. Whatever we looked for his body, we did not find it. We could not laugh because it was hard days. We tried not laugh but Saeed started laughing. Finally, two days later, his body was found. That is why there is a distance between the grave of Hamid and others. It was a hard day including for Saeed. Think Saeed went inside the grave and told the other guys that the next grave was his. Exactly one year later, he was martyred in Operation Beit-al Moqaddas 2 and was buried exactly next to Hamid.     

*Didn't you scare? To me, your guys had mocked death!

*Of course. Martyrdom was a wish for us. In a scene from the war, I saw that we were 26 and lots of tanks there and many people inside them. A boy took a soldier as captive. It was said that he was not from Iraq but from Sudan. He looked around 20 and was very tall but the one who had taken him as captive was very short. I think not scaring form death is an art. The guys saw such strange scenes.

*Thanks for the interview