Military Training for the Isfahan Youth

Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2022-01-04

As soon as arriving in Isfahan (in winter 1978) and settled in a safe place, the militant and revolutionary youth of Isfahan were recruited, and I taught them what I had learned about explosions and destruction in Syria and Lebanon. The first one was the method of making a homemade bomb, for which I asked a friend to buy about 50 or 60 pressure cookers with a capacity of three and five people or more from the manufacturing factory in NajafabadThe pressure cookers were filled with explosives - which were made of various destructive elements - and were armed with the wicks and detonators I had previously brought with me from Syria. I taught the youth how to put these bombs in the path of tanks and military vehicles and with a wire and a battery to blow up an electric trigger, causing the pressure cookers to explode. Indeed, these pressure cookers were extremely destructive. My martyr brother, Seyed Mohsen Safavi, was able to provide a lot of dynamite at that time. We used these explosives to destroy and fire targets that belonged to the regime.

The homemade bomb made of potassium chlorate and other explosive elements with a water pipe tee was also used in the destruction. At the nights of State Of Siege in Isfahan, I did other activities with the help of one or two friends and a motorcycle. I picked up a Kalashnikov rifle I had prepared, covered my face with keffiyeh, and we ambushed in the streets and alleys. As soon as the army vehicles arrived, we fired at their wheels, and the troops panicked, and we fled. The people who saw us in the streets shouted Takbir and cried, ‘Palestinian guerrillas have come.’ Of course, we did not kill any military forces in these operations. Once in Golpayegan, we carried out such an operation and set fire to a place with explosives; but most of our work was military training for the youth and the revolutionary forces. Our actions in the Isfahan continued until early February [1978].