SABAH (34)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2020-11-2

SABAH (34)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Interviewed and Compiled by Fatemeh Doustkami

Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

Published by Soore Mehr Publishing Co.

Persian Version 2019

I had seen Hassan Sorkhou in the mosque during the recent days. He was one of the members of Abouzar group[1]. I did not know why they called him Sorkhou, was it because of his red facial skin or it was his family name. When he wore khaki clothes, he was exactly like US or Israeli soldiers.

Abbas Alivand was one of those forces who took food and water for the soldiers in the fronts. He had seen me dealing with the injured and knew that I was busy with rescue. I had asked him a few times to take me to the fronts but every time he refused and said: “There is still time. When the time comes, I will let you know.” Among the women who were helping in the mosque, Maryam Amjad and I were the most enthusiastic ones to go to the fronts. From time to time when Sheikh Sharif came to mosque, we also asked him to take us. He used to say: “Wait. Still the men are in the fronts and we do not need you there.” 

It was noon. Khalkhali had just left that Abbas Alivand and Hassan Sorkhou came to the mosque. Alivand stood beside me and said in a low tone: “sister Sabbah, if you want to go to the fronts, now is the time. We want to take food and water for soldiers.”

I jumped like a spring. Maryam was not in the mosque otherwise she was also ready to go like me. Hassan Sorkhou and Abbas Alivand embarked two three water containers of twenty liters each and the packages of food in a pick-up truck which was at the door. Then they got in. I sat in the back of the pick-up truck. I was so excited. Before getting in the truck, they told me that they are going towards road police station. I had previously heard from Ali that the situation in road police station is very bad and the conflict is high there. I do not know why Abbas had decided to take me there considering the situation!

I was so excited to see the battle scenes of our soldiers fighting the Iraqis. I wanted to see how our soldiers are fighting the enemy with bare hands. I wanted to know about the war directly since I was not far from it. Until that moment I was only hearing the news.

The car started moving fast. The city was like a ghost city. Shadow of death had covered the streets. Khorramshahr had turned upside down in a matter of few days. Only explosion noises could be heard. There were the bodies of dogs and cats hit by shrapnel which had made the city uglier. The walls of some houses and shops had been hit by shrapnel and cannons and all the equipment had fallen on the ground and the surface of the street was covered in holes and pits following the explosions. The torn electrical cords, left at the bottom of the electric light poles, were not a beautiful scene to watch.

I moved up and down at the back of the pick-up truck. Although I tried to hold myself in one point and was leaning on the window of the cabin, I was jumping up and down due to my light weight. I was 170 cm in heights and 50 kg in weight and was a thin person. I had lost more weight during the past ten days. I tilted my head down and tried to keep it on my knees.

We passed Mowlavi Street and then Santop Street and Rah Ahan square. Every few seconds, a mortar bomb hit the ground around the car and the shrapnel passed overhead. We were moving from Dizel Abad Street to Pole No. The remaining parts of vehicles of Iraqis were besides the road in smoke. It was obvious that they had had strong clashes with our forces and had been forced to move back. We passed Pole No and moved to Sad Dastgah.

Sad Dastgah included a few blocks of four-story apartments in lines facing each other. These houses belonged to the employees and workers of ports and customs. After the fall of Shalamcheh, the Iraqis had reached Pole No and moved forward. On that day, Iraqis had withdrawn back to Sad Dastgah apartments and had endured lots of damages and casualties. A strong battle was going on between them and our forces.

Besides the wall of the first house of Sad Dastgah apartments, the military soldiers were either sitting or standing. Hassan Sorkhou stopped in front of them and they both got out; I got out too. The sound of bullets of G3, Kalashnikov and RPG was heard constantly. Abbas Alivand started shouting at the soldiers all of a sudden and said: “why are you sitting here? Iraqis are behind Sad Dastgah and have injured and martyred lots of soldiers. Our brothers in arms cannot even go forward and bring the injured back. I don’t understand the reason that you are standing here?! Why don’t you go for help?”

Abbas Alivand was huge in size and had a thick voice. He talked to the soldiers in an angry tone and one of the soldiers who seemed nineteen twenty years of age, started crying like a child and said: “brother! I swear to God that we want to go for help but they don’t give us the permission!” Hassan Sorkou said: “they don’t give permission?! Who does not give the permission?!”

The soldiers said in a crying tone: “our commander. He had ordered us not to leave our location. He also checks us every hour to see if we are in our location or not?! He checks us. He told us that those who leave their location will be judged in field court.”

It could not be funnier than this! In the middle of conflict and war, in that critical condition, a lot of soldiers who were armed were just standing there and did not have the permission to fight. They had cannon of 106 which were located in a corner in the shade to apparently rest! I could not tolerate any more. I turned to the soldiers and said: “you should be ashamed of yourselves? Who is that commander who told you to stay? What does this mean in the middle of war?”

One of the soldiers said: “sister we have to obey our commander.” I said: “obey?! You want to obey a traitor commander?! There is no man among you to spare a bullet for this commander?! Didn’t your commander order you to hand over the city to the Iraqis?!”

I had not finished talking that their commander arrived in a Jeep for checking his forces. As soon as the commander approached, I turned to him and said: “aren’t you ashamed of yourself for not taking any action and just standing there?”

The commander was shocked hearing these words from a girl and said: “this is none of your business. We have orders from senior management and cannot disobey them.”

Upon hearing these words from the commander, Abbas Alivand prepared the spanner of his weapon and targeted the commander. He did the same against Alivand. As soon as I saw this situation, I armed my weapon and targeted the soldiers and their commander: “if you shoot, I will shoot all of you.”

As soon as I said these things, one two soldiers followed by others started protesting to their commander to let them go and fight like other soldiers! The commander scabbarded his weapon when confronted. He was silent for a while and then told the soldiers: “those who want to go can go but later they will be held accountable for disobeying the orders.”

Alivand got into the 106 Jeep quickly and signaled us to get in the pick-up truck. Hassan Sorkhou started driving and I sat in front. Ten twelve soldiers also got into the pick-up truck and followed us. We moved forward, disregarding the commander who was standing in a corner and was looking at us with anger and was biting his mustache.

I was so happy that we were moving towards our soldiers full hands. I knew pretty well that they are in dire need of ammunition and equipment. In this condition, 106 cannon was a big fortune.

After asking for a long time, this was the first time I was going to the front. The situation was so chaotic and the war was so intense that I got disconnected mentally. The noises, dust and the movement of the ground caused my brain to go into a shock. The situation was more terrifying than I had heard and imagined until that moment. Some of the army forces were guarding behind the apartments of Sad Dastgah and were shooting at Iraqis who were opposite them. These houses belonged to the employees and workers of port and customs.

We had to get to the forces. The streets of Sad Dastgah were not safe. The Iraqis were stationed in Sad Dastgah houses. Although we could distinguish between the shootings of our forces and Iraqis, but we had to pass with utmost care. They had mounted to the roof tops and full vision of the surrounding areas and our location. This made our efforts harder.

In order to deliver food and water to the soldiers we had to pass one of the streets. We made fire lines for each other and passed in a bent position and quick; we had to move in zigzag lines and not straight. With such movement, there was a little chance that they could shoot us. I had a special situation. My body was filled with a strange and new feeling. A feeling of excitement mixed with fear. I was very careful of my movements. I did not want to show any weakness. I did not want Alivand to regret bringing me to the front. If I did not act correctly, I would lose the chance of coming to the front again.

While I was running, I touched my pocket from time to time to make sure that the two grenades are with me. I was wearing a military trouser which I had taken from the first two days of the war from the mosque. The army had two kinds of uniform for its forces. One was their uniform and the other was their “working” form. The working trousers were looser and more comfortable than the uniform trousers. As I was wearing jeans and was not comfortable in them, I took one of the working trousers and wore it. I could place the grenades in my pockets easily.

One of the soldiers had been shot between Iraqi and our forces and was lying on the ground. Apparently the soldiers had tried to bring him back since morning, but had not succeeded. But the situation had changed with the arrival of 106 cannon. As soon as Abbas shot the first bullet with 106 cannon, our forces started moving. The arrival of the cannon had made them more hopeful. They chanted Allah is great and my spine was shivering. After shooting a few bullets from the cannon to the Iraqis’ location, their resistance became weaker and the situation got a bit calmer.

To be continued …