The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War-40

By Mujtaba Al-Husseini
Translated by: Muhammad Hussein Zavar-Kaaba
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-7-26

The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War-40

By Mujtaba Al-Husseini
Translated by: Muhammad Hussein Zavar-Kaaba
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi

I was treating them in the open air and under the scorching sun. After advancing for two kilometers, our forces reached a dead end. They had entered a swampy area surrounded by many trees. There was no hope for the advance of personnel and personnel carriers. Our forces around the village of "Kuheh" faced fierce resistance from the IRGC, who were fighting with light weapons and were supported by 106 cannons, 82 mm mortars and heavy artillery. They fought house to house inside the village of Kuheh and bravely blocked all the advances of our personnel and tanks. It was not long before the Iranians surrounded our forces in the swamps. A strange anxiety and confusion gripped our forces. The number of wounded and killed kept increasing - especially after the enemy artillery mistakenly attacked them. We were still trapped until nightfall. The number of wounded reached 48, most of them in critical condition. Extreme fatigue, thirst and hunger had worn us out.

It was 5 pm when Brigadier General Salah Ghazi, commander of the 5^th Division, entered the area and surveyed the situation. After observing the situation, he immediately ordered a retreat. The fact is that if such a decision had not been made, we would all have been crushed. At 8 pm, all the forces retreated and our defeated battalion returned to its original positions with difficulty. This operation exposed the lies of the commander of the 2^nd Battalion. Therefore, he was called in for questioning. It turned out that he was not a wolf, but a cunning cowardly fox who was trying to gain some advantages for himself by lying.

10- 304^th Infantry Regiment:

As I mentioned before, after our participation in the operation in the village of "Kuh", the 304^th Regiment replaced our regiment and after the retreat, it remained under our command. The deployment of two regiments in one place was an exceptional matter. The commander of the 304^th Regiment was a captain from Mosul. His men numbered 350 and were all reserve soldiers and Kurds. They were all Kurds who participated in the Northern War against the central government in 1974 and had returned to Iraq after the signing of the peace agreement between the late Shah and Saddam Hussein.[1]

After our men were deployed in the defensive lines, the 304^th Regiment was deployed behind the cold and near the positions of the medical team. The behavior of the members of this unit bore no resemblance to that of military personnel. They provided no security for the war, the front, or military regulations. Instead of military boots, they wore local slippers. They never wore helmets. In addition, what was more interesting was that they did not know much Arabic. Not anyone who saw them would never have thought that they were members of the Iraqi army. The equipment of this regiment was very meager and it did not even have an ambulance or a water truck.

Two weeks passed since the 304^th Regiment was deployed next to our battalion. Its number decreased day by day until the number of deserters reached 150. This caused the commander of this unit to resign, but the brigade commander strongly opposed his resignation and instead ordered him to be transferred to the rear of the front. The army command and the government were aware of the situation of such units, but they urgently needed people to be present at the fronts. The call-up of Kurds to serve in the army - even if they did not participate in the war - was done in the interests of the system itself. Because in this way they were kept away from the Kurdistan region and prevented from participating in guerrilla wars against the regime.

11- Promotion of non-commissioned officers:

According to the laws of the Iraqi army, no non-commissioned officer could reach the rank of officer, even if he had the highest talent or had shown indescribable courage and bravery during his service. Therefore, it never crossed the minds of the non-commissioned officers to become officers one day. An Iraqi officer, given the privileges they were granted, had the status of a small sultan at the army level. However, the war caused the government to grant non-commissioned officers the right to achieve the rank of officer by showing courage and creativity in the battlefield and with the approval of their commanders. This decision was in the interests of both the regime and the army, because in this way they were able to compensate for the lack of killed officers and strengthen the strength of the army. This also forced the non-commissioned officers to sacrifice and serve more seriously and to be present at the fronts. This privilege was granted to our regiment for the first time after the operation of July 29, 1981. Our unit was allowed to promote two of its non-commissioned officers to the rank of officer.

The selection of individuals for promotion was primarily the prerogative of the regiment commander. Moreover, the company heads only had the right to consult with him. Therefore, the relations and temperament of the army commanders played an effective role in the selection of such individuals. The first person selected for promotion in our battalion was a lieutenant named "Oday" from the second company, who earned the right to this promotion after all the members of his company were killed. However, the second person from the support company was named "Abd". Unlike the first, he was an illiterate, naive and ridiculed person by the company members, especially the medical team members. He had the rank of first sergeant, had deserted the army before the war began, and had returned to the army after the amnesty was announced. He was in charge of the four-tier defenses. He was promoted again to lieutenant. The poor fellow had not even been able to successfully complete the first stage of literacy. The new lieutenant was a dark, swarthy man, tall and well built; and in my opinion, this, and not intelligence or literacy, had made him worthy of the rank of lieutenant. Before his promotion, the nurses would jokingly tell him: “You are the one who shot down the Iranian plane and saved the Sindbad Bridge[2] and you deserve the promotion.” By chance, he was promoted to lieutenant, although he had no part in the July 29 operation, as he was on leave. However, what was the main reason for this promotion? He was born in the same village as the regiment commander. Moreover, not long before that date, Sergeant "Abd" had brought a sheep with a box of fresh fruit to the commander's door. The aforementioned promotion astonished everyone in the regiment, but I was not surprised to hear this news - when I was arrested on leave. The nurses asked sadly, "How did this simpleton achieve the rank of officer?"

I replied, "A joke turned serious. Nothing seems strange in this country."

Who are the commanders themselves, anyway? Who is Saddam? Who is Ezzat al-Duri? Who are the members of the Revolutionary Council?

They were knife-wielding men whom the British had collected from the streets of Baghdad and placed at the head of the system.

An hour after returning from leave, I went to the shelter. Suddenly someone called me "Doctor! Doctor! Are you going to the officers' restaurant?"

I asked, "Who called me?"

He said, "It's me, Lieutenant Abd."

I smiled and said, “Please!”

Lieutenant Abd entered and saluted. I told him, “You are an officer like me; you don’t need to be respected.”

He felt embarrassed and said, “I had forgotten.”

I congratulated him and wished him to get used to his new rank. He sat down next to me. I looked at the new cap and three new pens hanging from his left arm. I asked him, “Three pens at once?”

He handed me one of them. I said, “I don’t go to the officers’ quarters, I eat with the deputy commander.”

I apologized and he went to the quarters.

To be continued …