Crossing the Karun River
Written in Arabic by Nizar Assamarie
I moved my office to Basrah city, when
its front-line became a combat zone, residing with a large number of foreign and Arab journalists at the Hamdan Hotel. In
November 1980, I was contacted by lieutenant colonel Abdul-Munim As-samaraie, a
political orientation officer in the 3rd brigade, who told me that his brigade
achieved a huge victory and asked me to bring a limited number of journalists,
no more than 12, to visit and witness the battle area.
In order to have a diverse press
coverage be that news agencies, television and radio networks, I invited all
journalists to an urgent meeting at the Hamdan hotel’s meeting room. Hundreds
of them packed the room and inquired about the truth at the frontline. They
wanted us to confirm our achievements, especially after Sadik Khilkhali, the
representative of the Iranian Press, denied that the Iraqi forces have
successfully managed to cross to the east bank of the Karun River.
There were around 300 non-Iraqi
journalists, yet we were limited to take only twelve journalists to visit the
front-line. I asked them to nominate twelve journalists. After prolonged
discussions, they could not reach a conclusion, so I decided to select the
journalists myself since only two Land Cruiser SUV's arrived to take us to the front-line.
I chose General Edward Furdson, the military
correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, reporters from the BBC, France
Press, United Press and other correspondents.
After a journey amid war zones, we
arrived at the mobile headquarters for the third armored brigade. The commander
Brigadier General Kadoury Al-Douri was waiting for us. It seemed that he
previously knew General Fredson and exchanged detailed analysis with him about
the Basrah region. After quick refreshments, Major Sufian Al-Tikriti
arrived. He is the brigades’
intelligence officer, who accompanied us to the frontline. We began by crossing
the Karun river using a military boat, because the mobile bridge used to be
only assembled at night so it wouldn’t be targeted. After we crossed the river,
we saw fires and smoke so high and severely hot that we felt from a
distance. Then Sufian Al-Tikiriti said,
“This is a crude oil pipeline that discovered by chance during the bombing and
as a result the flow of the crude oil was interrupted from reaching Abadan
refinery”
We continued/progressed toward the
other side of the Karun river passing through a zigzag road that is parallel to
the main Ahwaz-Abadan main road, sometimes driving on paved roads and other
times we avoided the road due to irrigation pipes/ channels. There were tens of
trucks carrying various goods, as well as burnt trailers on both sides of the
road. In a journey filled with fear and
danger, we arrived at Abadan Television Station, few hours after the battle end
when the electricity plant was still working.
I neither remember the battle’s
starting and ending dates nor its name, however, I learned from reading the
book of Brigadier-General Nizar Al-Khazraji that the sixth armored brigade from
the third armored division was the one “executed and completed the
crossing of the Karun River, which had a width of 400m, then moving toward
Abadan and blocking the main Abadan-Ahwaz highway”. Outside the fence of Abadan Television
Station, there were around 40 Iranian POWs, waiting to be transferred to a safe
place. We entered the main television
building which was mostly destroyed due to the artillery shelling and military
operation.
We were unable to stay long at the
television station knowing it was a possible bombardment target, therefore Maj.
Sufian Al-Tikreti ordered us to quickly evacuate the building. From there, we headed to Abadan city, and
after about 2.5km, we stopped so that the BBC reporter take footage for his
documentary film and include the BBC news report in response the claim by Sadik
Khilkhali that the Iraqi army did not cross the Karun river and that two Iraqi
tanks attempted to approach the eastern bank of the river, but failed.
In a televised report about the region,
The BBC correspondent summarized:
“We are now close to Abadan Television
and Radio stations, standing about 1.5 km away from my location, where the
Iraqi armed forces are, which surrounds Abadan from various sides and about 3Km
away from it.”
After this tour, we returned back to
Basrah. Then the news was delivered through
the British press networks, which confirmed that the Iraqi forces crossed the
Karun River to Kuwait through Basrah.
__________________________________
Nizar
As-samaraie, a graduate
from Al-Mustansiriya University, specializing in International law. He was born
in Baghdad 1943. As-samarraei managed
the internal press in the Ministry of Information and Cultural Affairs in the 1980s. Became a prisoner of war (POW) on 24 March
1982 during the Al-Shush-Dezfol operations, and lingered in Iran’s prisons for
20 years at the Iranian side. He was
released on 22 Jan 2002 and arrived in his home the next day, 23 Jan 2002. Assamaraei
published a book detailing his diaries in Iran prisons titled, “In the palaces
of Ayatollahs”
Kamal Al-Sabbagh is an engineer
who, as a teenager and young adult, witnessed the wars in Iraq (1980-2003). He
now resides in New Zealand.
The Karun River is located in the Arab region of Ahwaz in Iran. It is estimated to
be about 950-km long. The Karun River ends at Shatt al-Arab, where the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers meet, and together they come across the Arabian Gulf. The
river forms the famous Abadan Delta, located in
southwestern Iran in the Khuzestan Province.