Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 4
By Mojtaba al-Hosseini
Translated into Farsi by: Mohammad Hossein Zavar Kabeh
Translated into English by: M.B. Khoshnevisan
2025-11-09
Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 4
By Mojtaba al-Hosseini
Translated into Farsi by: Mohammad Hossein Zavar Kabeh
Translated into English by: M.B. Khoshnevisan
***
Of course. Here is the translation from Persian to American English, rendered in a formal, analytical tone suitable for a historical or political context.
3-Hiring of Egyptian and foreign workers
The Iraqi regime, under the pretext of implementing construction projects and fostering national growth and development, invited nearly three million Egyptian nationals, along with several thousand Indian and Filipino nationals, into Iraq. Ostensibly, these individuals entered the country as laborers and technicians to participate in Iraq's development projects. Initially, their numbers were within an acceptable range. However, by the end of 1979 and the beginning of 1980, the number of Egyptians had increased several fold. This rapid influx drew the attention and aroused the curiosity of the Iraqi people. The abnormal influx of foreign labor led to a series of social problems, resulting in clashes between the Iraqi people and Egyptian nationals. Although many of these foreigners were well-intentioned individuals who had come to the country to earn a living, a significant number among them brought corruption with them, creating numerous social issues within the community. For instance, dozens of dance and music troupes and hundreds of foreign prostitutes began working in disreputable establishments. Furthermore, the Ba'athists exploited the presence of a large number of Egyptians for intelligence and security missions, offering them legal protection. A law was issued by Saddam Hussein stating that any Iraqi citizen who caused the slightest harm to the rights of an Egyptian individual would be sentenced to six months in prison.
Egyptian nationals provided significant support to the Iraqi regime both before and during the war; otherwise, what could justify the employment of three million Egyptians when the country had 12 million Iraqi citizens of its own? What was the government's true intention in bringing them in, and what did it want from them? The events of the war itself provided the answers to these questions. To put it more clearly, when Saddam Hussein sent Iraq's sons to the furnace of war, he utilized the Egyptians on the military front and, more importantly, in managing the country's internal affairs. In this way, they filled the void left by the departure of various segments of society to the battlefields. Therefore, the influx of these foreign nationals was not a natural or trivial matter, but rather part of a pre-arranged plan, established in preparation for war. Further evidence is that, after the war ended and the regime no longer had any need for them, these individuals were disgracefully expelled from Iraq.
4– The failed landing of U.S. military forces in Tabas
This blatant violation of the soil of Islamic Iran was carried out to achieve a series of predetermined objectives. One of the stated objectives was ostensibly the rescue of the American hostages held in Tehran. However, in reality, the U.S. government aimed to give a "green light" to its agents and proxies to violate Iran's sovereignty. Otherwise, what interpretation or justification can be found for the international and regional silence in the face of this clear American act of aggression? This invasion was, in fact, a preparatory step for Saddam's regime to launch a full-scale assault on Iran. Even a year after the war began, Carter, upon leaving the White House, explicitly stated: "The goal of starting the Iraq-Iran war was the release of the American hostages."
It becomes clear that Saddam's war against the Islamic Revolution was a war with international and colonial dimensions, and not a war over land and water—as Saddam had claimed.
5- The devastating war against the Islamic movement and religious authority in Iraq
The Saddam regime launched a widespread wave of executions, arrests, and imprisonment against religious ranks and Ulema, aiming to clear the stage of Muslim revolutionaries who were supporters of Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. The best and most devoted sons of Iraq became the targets of this assault. The brutality of the Ba'athists reached such a level that they issued a law mandating the execution of supporters of the Islamic movement and those who propagated its ideas and ideologies—which the Ba'athists considered reactionary. The law even included those who had previously abandoned political-Islamic activity. Of course, the regime did not stop at this measure. It also confiscated the movable and immovable property of the executed, even their household furnishings, and the assets of their spouses and children. Furthermore, it stripped their immediate and extended family members of all civil rights, including the rights to travel and to be employed. The goal, in reality, was to instill terror among the population. And when none of these actions proved effective in ending the conflict between the ruling regime and the Islamic movement, the criminal operatives martyred the highly respected source of emulation, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr. This great martyr, who held a deep love for Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution, had once said in a speech addressed to the people of Iraq: "Dissolve yourselves in the Imam, just as he dissolved himself in Islam."
This development caused considerable fear and concern for the West and the Ba'athist regime, leading Saddam to arrest him and his esteemed sister, Bint al-Huda. They were martyred on April 8, 1980. The news was a devastating blow to the Islamic movement and the Muslim people of Iraq. The regime only announced the news of his execution several months later, once his followers had been largely crushed. In one of his speeches, in which he attacked Iran, Imam Khomeini, and the Islamic movement, and reproached the Shah for leaving Iran, Saddam informed the public of Ayatollah Sadr's execution using the phrase "the eliminated Sadr." It becomes clear that the West, in both thought and action, did not want the experience of the Shah and the Imam to be repeated in any Islamic country. Therefore, the execution of the martyred Sadr can be seen as a preemptive action.
Following this crime, the conflict between the ruling regime and the Muslim masses intensified, escalating into an armed confrontation between the two sides. One of the most prominent of these clashes was the attempt on the life of Tariq Aziz, a prominent party and government official, during his visit to Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. In this assassination attempt, he and a number of Ba'athists were wounded, and nine others were killed. Saddam held Iran and its revolution responsible for this attempt and, in a speech delivered on the occasion, threatened the Islamic groups and Iran. The regime then fabricated an incident. During the funeral procession for those killed at the university, as it passed in front of the school for Iranian children in Baghdad, an unidentified individual threw a hand grenade, wounding a number of people. Saddam's regime intended to blame supporters of the Islamic Revolution for this event. Furthermore, during his visit with the wounded from the university incident at the hospital, Saddam stirred up a major controversy around the event. The regime's propaganda media, staging a spectacle, attributed the explosion to those they labeled as agents of the Iranian government and its revolution. Unfortunately, the naive public believed this charade. From that point on, any action taken in Iraq against the regime's interests was blamed on the [Iraqi] Mujahideen and their instigators, namely Iran. It is useful to recall an example. One day, at the Al-Karkh girls' high school, an electrical short circuit occurred in the power line, followed by a loud noise. The Ba'athists seized the opportunity and shouted, "Agents of the Islamic Dawa Party have thrown a hand grenade at the school!"
This incident terrified the female students. In their rush to escape, many fell to the ground, and dozens of them—overcome with hysteria—were taken to Al-Karama General Hospital. At that time, I was working in the surgical department, and during my examination of the injured, I found no major wounds—only minor injuries caused by their falls in panic. Unfortunately, these events worked to the regime’s advantage. In addition to intensifying their efforts to dismantle the Islamic movement, they also managed to create a sense of distrust among the public toward religious individuals and the Iranian Islamic Revolution.
To be continued …
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