Memoirs of Ahmad Saghafi

Machine Translation Edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-10-29

Ahmad Saghafi, a fighter from the Holy Defense era, was a guest on the 291^st Shab-e Khatereh (Night of Remembrance) program (June 2018). Saghafi reminisced about Operation Beit al-Moqaddas. He said: “During Operation Beit al- Moqaddas, we were in Darkhoveyn. It is an area between Ahvaz and Khorramshahr. We have two roads there. One from Ahvaz to Khorramshahr and one from Ahvaz to Abadan. Because the Ahvaz to Khorramshahr road was in enemy hands, the guys were preparing for the operation on the Ahvaz to Abadan road in the Darkhoveyn area. We left after 9 p.m. The evening before this time, one of those bridges that the army builds for its forces had been built for the traffic of trucks and fighters. After the Fath al-Mubin operation, we would reach every trench and say, "Allahu Akbar," and they (the enemy) would surrender. We saw their surrender from the moment we set off until we reached the Ahvaz-Khorramshahr Road. There were numerous trenches on the way. In some places, their tanks and armored vehicles were stationed; for example, if there were five tanks there and the guys hit one, they would flee. We did not see any resistance on the way until we reached the Husseiniyeh station. We stationed ourselves in Husseiniyeh until our guys and one of the Isfahan divisions joined together. It was around 11 o'clock in the morning. I was sitting ten meters from the embankment. The rest of the fighters were also sitting scattered on the embankment. We were not at all ready to attack the enemy. We were just waiting for the order to start the attack. I saw several high-ranking commanders of the IRGC, such as Mr. Bagheri, Mr. Jafari from the Najaf base, Mr. Rashid, who was the commander of the Khatam base, Mr. Gholampour from the Karbala base, Mr. Kazemi, and Mr. Hemmat, gathered there. There was also a 106 jeep that had been destroyed. There was about twenty meters between the gentlemen and the embankment. I was sitting ten meters from the embankment and ten meters from those gentlemen on the ground. There was a hole under the jeep. The men sat down in the hole. They were barely sitting under the jeep and were checking the operation. At that moment, we saw a man rise from the embankment and a bullet hit him in the forehead. The second, third, fourth and fifth men also rose and were hit in the forehead. We had no idea what the story was and why these commanders had come here. Suddenly, I saw 50 RPGs coming up the embankment and we just realized that the Iraqis had planned this attack the night before and had arranged for us to be stationed at the Husseiniyeh station the night before so that they could encircle the guys during the day. We usually built our embankments on the side of the road, and since we wanted the Ahvaz-Khorramshahr Road to fall into our hands, we built the embankment in such a way that the road would be in our hands. Suddenly, we saw a hundred or so tanks in two columns coming at speed towards the destroyed jeep in which those few commanders were sitting. Those commanders knew they were going to attack, and that was why they had come."

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So far, 383 programs have been held to commemorate the Holy Defense by Resistance Literature and Culture and Studies Center. The next program will be held on Thursday, October 29, 2026.

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