The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor - 37

By Mojtaba Al-Hosseini
Translated into Farsi by: Mohammad Hossein Zavar Kabeh
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-7-5

The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor - 37

By Mojtaba Al-Hosseini

Translated into Farsi by: Mohammad Hossein Zavar Kabeh

Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi

***

D- Patrol of the First Regiment:

The First Regiment of the 20th Brigade was stationed on the right side of our regiment’s positions and west of the road leading to Ahvaz. The positions of this regiment were more at risk of encountering Iranian forces than our positions. In addition to carrying out daily military activities, the First Regiment sent a small patrol-combat group to the restricted area one night. After reaching the closest point to the Iranian positions, this group hid in a dungeon until the second night and then returned to its positions.

This patrol unit closely monitored any movement of Iranian forces and identified the restricted area. During one of these patrols, a patrol of the First Regiment captured an Iranian commander who had the rank of major. The story was that the patrol group was hiding in the restricted area when suddenly an Iranian jeep appeared to be on the scene to scout the area. The patrol members opened fire on the Iranian jeep, killing a lieutenant and the driver, who fled the scene in a car, but the Iranian commander was captured by the patrol unit and transferred to the headquarters of the 20th Brigade. He was questioned about the condition of the Iranian forces on the other side and the type of weapons they had.

The officer was apparently a member of the Ahvaz Armored Division. The 20th Brigade, which was hoping to capture an Iranian soldier, suddenly saw a major in his grasp. For this reason, the patrol unit commander and his soldiers were encouraged.

5- Iranian penetration into the minefields:

I was sitting in the deputy commander’s trench at ten in the morning when the phone rang. The deputy picked up the phone. He introduced himself as an artillery reconnaissance officer and asked, “Are your soldiers operating in the restricted area, opposite the third company?”

The deputy replied, “I don’t know. I’ll give you your answer in a few moments.”

The deputy immediately contacted Captain “Abdulkazem,” the commander of the third company, and asked him about the identities of the people operating in the minefield opposite the third company. The commander replied, “We don’t have any soldiers there at the moment.”

They were certain that the people who had infiltrated the minefield and were engaged in destructive operations were Iranian forces. The deputy regimental commander contacted the commander and informed him of this. The commander, enraged, asked, “How dare the Iranians enter the regimental minefield in broad daylight?”

He ordered them to fire at them with all their might. Meanwhile, the commander of the third regiment immediately summoned the regimental headquarters. After the shooting stopped, two Iranians took refuge in a destroyed vehicle in the middle of the minefield and slowly crawled towards their positions. This incident surprised us. How was it possible for two Iranian soldiers to advance 1,500 meters in a restricted area in broad daylight, without attracting the attention of our regimental scouts, and to reach within 200 meters of our positions? This action required unimaginable courage and self-sacrifice, which Iranian soldiers possessed.

This incident was a great scandal for our regiment, which was likely to lead to the regimental commander being put on trial, but the commander covered up the matter and was content with a verbal reprimand from Captain "Abdulkazem", the commander of the third company. He said to the captain in an insulting tone: “Fools! You slept! I think the Iranians will come at night and take your water and supplies with them.”

The regiment commander sent a patrol unit from the combat engineering unit to find out the condition of the minefield. They went and saw that the minefield was 90% destroyed and the mines they found were collected in cloth bags. It turned out that the Iranians had repeatedly entered the minefield and tried to neutralize them. On the second night, the combat engineering forces were sent to replant the mines.

6- The collapse of morale

The war had gone on for many months and had shown its long-term and painful form. The exhausting conditions on the front had an adverse effect on the morale of each individual and created a kind of confusion and disintegration in the ranks of the soldiers. This ultimately led to non-compliance with army rules and regulations, and finally disobedience, confrontations with officers and non-commissioned officers, even the use of firearms, and the killing and wounding of a number of soldiers.

Army commanders, who were aware of these new conditions, noticed that soldiers were gradually fleeing service, or had resorted to drinking alcohol and gambling at the front. Gradually, soldiers began to play with weapons and openly mock military announcements and national anthems. For this reason, the army established camps called "disciplinary camps." The purpose of establishing these camps, which were established behind the front, was to punish undisciplined soldiers. For example, one of these camps was established in Juffair in our division's operational area. The offender who entered this camp was forced to undergo a difficult military training course under the supervision of commando instructors. He had to undergo a period of hard labor. I should mention that one day the regiment commander informed me of a secret telegram sent to the commanders. In this telegram, the number of deserters from the Iraqi army in the first half of 1981 was stated to be about a thousand soldiers.

But as for the consumption of alcoholic beverages, it was enough to look at the empty beer bottles that were left on the side of the road, from the village of "Nashwa" in Iraq to the front-line positions. As soon as the commander of the 5th Division saw the empty bottles, he was forced to issue an order to inspect military vehicles heading to the front and punish those who were in possession of alcoholic beverages. In this directive, he used his famous phrase - a drunk army does not win the war. It seems that the division commander had forgotten the fact that officers are the chief corruptors, drinkers, and carriers of alcohol to the front lines![1] I knew countless officers and non-commissioned officers who drank alcohol before carrying out combat missions. Gambling had also become commonplace. Officers considered gambling a form of spiritual entertainment. Playing with guns unfortunately led to several murders and injuries. I myself witnessed the killing of an ambulance driver named "Abdul Hamza" by his comrade.

In addition to these, other miscellaneous incidents occurred in our regiment, including the mockery of national songs and anthems that were played in praise of Saddam and his Qadisiya and inciting the army to fight. Army personnel would mock these songs by composing ridiculous poems and songs that were based on the rhythm and style of national songs. Here I will mention a song that began as follows: Peace and greetings of the whole nation to you, O mighty army. And the soldiers sang it with this phrase: The coffins of Najaf are all yours, O mighty army. The meaning of the coffins of Najaf was the burial of the bodies of the soldiers in the great cemetery of Najaf.

The most important and sensitive incident that I witnessed due to the lack of discipline and low morale of the army personnel occurred one night when a combat patrol unit of the Iranian forces approached the positions of our regiment and opened fire with their light weapons. Our men, thinking that they were under a massive attack, fired aimlessly and madly towards the restricted area. The officers tried to gain control of the situation and prevent the soldiers from shooting, but their efforts were ineffective and the shooting continued.

Until at 12 o'clock at night, the regiment ran out of ammunition. The regiment was forced to request ammunition from the supply area, which was 25 kilometers away. This ammunition arrived at 4:00 AM, meaning the regiment spent four hours without ammunition. This incident terrified the brigade commanders, who were constantly wondering what would happen if they were attacked by the Iranians and what would happen to the soldiers?

To be continued…