The 346th Night of Memoir– 1
Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad
2024-01-03
The 346th Night of Memoir was held by the presence of the Ehya(revival) Group and members of the Holy Defense Combat Medical Institute in the Surah Hall of the Islamic Revolution Art Center on Thursday of the May 4, 2023. The narrators of this program were Sardar Ali Asghar Molla, Dr. Abdullah Saadat, Dr. Ahmed Ebadi and Dawood Khanazer. They reminisced about the Operation Beit-ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem) and the liberation of Khorramshahr, focusing on the treatment of the wounded with minimal casualties. Dawood Salehi was in charge of this program.
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The first narrator, General Ali Asghar Molla, addressed Imam Khomeini's statement that: "Khorramshahr was liberated by God" and said: The operation of Beit-ol-Moqaddas began on April 30, 1982; But our combat power was exhausted on May 8 and we were not ready to continue the operation. At this time, the Imam ordered the commanders to liberate Khorramshahr with this situation and ability.[[1]] After this Imam's message, the operation continued around 10 pm. The first message of signs of defeat in the Iraqi army was announced around 2 or 3 in the morning. Even around 3-4 o’clock in the morning, General [Ghulam Ali] Rashid, who is one of the reliable and well-educated war commanders, in a conversation with disbelief, asks several times to be sure.
At the beginning of the war, the Imam said: Saddam must go to hell [[2]]; that today we are all witnessing this hell of Saddam and all his supporters. Another part of the liberation of Khorramshahr was the Imam's guidance and support. Most of the forces were volunteer forces. The soldier could either go to the front or not; But Imam's message sent the soldiers to the front. On that day, anyone who wanted could join the military or not; But a part of the people of this country went to the army and military colleges, and a part went to the IRGC and Basij.
After Imam Khomeini said that "God liberated Khorramshahr", the Supreme Leader said: "God will liberate the world, and God will liberate Palestine, in addition to the fact that we have Khorramshahr ahead of us."[[3]]
Referring to the Beit-ol-Moqaddas operation, the narrator said: After the Fateh al-Mobin operation, it was confirmed for Iraq that the next point of our liberation action is the operational area of Beit-ol-Moqaddas. If this point were to be liberated, almost more than 90% of the territory that the Iraqi army had seized by force would be liberated. The rest that was in Iraq had no military, economic and political value. It means that the war was over for the goals that Saddam had defined and less than two years had passed since its beginning. In this operation, Saddam brought his potential and actual military power and deployed it in this area. That is, if you wanted to attack any part of it, It was useless.
On the 7th of May, the Iraqis resisted so much that we got many wounded and the highest number of martyrs was for that night. Our strength on the night of May 24 was less than that of 7th of May; but the strength of the Iraqi army was broken in a few hours this night. I looked at many of the trenches in Iraq. There was not a cartridge in their trench, but all the bullets were. We captured more than ten thousand people from Iraq. The number of wounded Iraqis evacuated by our hospital was very small. This issue indicated that the enemy was terrorized by the warriors, which forced them to surrender. They were not even willing to shoot at us. For this reason, the number of healthy Iraqi prisoners was high.
The narrator went on to describe the actions of the health authorities in the operation of Jerusalem from April 30 to May 26 and said: medical teams, nurses, surgeons, paramedics, ambulance drivers and the entire health chain helped. They were able to remove more than 20,000 wounded people from the battlefield in a bad surgical condition during the 25-day operation. These injured were transported by plane, Red Crescent trains and passenger trains to emergency centers, field hospitals and Aqaba cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Tabriz, Kerman, Yazd and Sari.
Iraq's attack on Iran has two dates, an official date and an unofficial date. The unofficial date of Iraq's attack on Khorramshahr was before 22 September. Iraq captured Khorramshahr under its artillery fire and passed through Shalamcheh checkpoints. The war has not officially started and an assessment was made and they realized that there was no preparation not only in the field of health and treatment, but also in the military, command and even national fields. Bani Sadr, who was the president, and some other people said no until 22 September, when Iraq officially attacked! Iraq shows that it is attacking, not attacking.
To be continued...
[1] General Nasrallah Fathian, the commander of security forces during the Holy Defense period, in his oral history published by the Holy Defense Documentation and Research Center, says about the Jerusalem operation: After two weeks of heavy fighting and the reduction of the strength of the line-breaking units, the meeting at the Moghadam Nasr camp under the command of Shahid Bagheri was formed. In this meeting, when many commanders did not agree with the continuation of the operation, Mr. Sayad Shirazi stood up and addressed the audience: "I came here to announce the decision of the command of the Karbala camp center." The decision is to continue the operation. If we give the enemy time, he will rebuild himself; He may take back the occupied territories from us. The atmosphere of the meeting became too heavy for decision making. Sayad said again: "Dear brothers! What do you say if this plan that we announced is the Imam's order? If the imam said that the operation should continue, what do you say?" With this sentence, those who were not in favor of continuing the operation, changed their words one by one and announced their readiness with a high spirit.
[2]"... This war between Iran and Iraqi Baathists is a war between Islam and disbelief, the Holy Quran and atheism. For this reason, it is necessary for all of you and us Muslims of the world to defend our beloved Islam and the Holy Quran and send these traitors to hell. (Sahifah Imam, p. 230, Imam Khomeini's message to the army and the Muslim nation of Iraq on 24 September 1359)
[3] Statements of the leadership in Imam Hossein (peace be upon him) University of Officers and Guard Training, may 24, 2015.
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