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Thursday, October 8, 2020
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 4
A Strange Accident in The Summer of 1982
By Osama AttarBashi
Translated to English by Wefa M. S.
In an area near the Iranian city of
"Gilan West", about 80 km from the Iraqi city of Khanaqin, our
regiment settled to control a section of the combat zone. The region consisted
of two mountain ranges, and in between them was a valley extending for a
distance of 15-20 km. In the middle of the valley, there was a paved road
extending from the Iraqi-Iranian borders into Iranian lands, and there were
many deserted villages on the edge of the mountain and in the valley.
Some battles took place in this
region before we arrived, and when our regiment reached there, the Iranian
forces were stationed at the top of the mountain range, while the Iraqi forces
were stationed on the lower edges of the mountain range. Some soldiers were
present in protective shelters on the edge of the motorway in the middle of the
valley. As a result of this positioning, movement was very limited during the
day, so we stayed awake all night and fell asleep after the sun rise. Our day
began in the afternoon or before sunset: We had breakfast between 2 and 4 pm,
and our lunch usually took place after sunset, and so the days were going routinely
quiet.
No confrontations or battles were
expected in that area because the situation was calm, and our regiment
headquarters was at the beginning of the mountain range on the left of the
road, and it consisted of a group of small houses in an abandoned village.
Captain Ibrahim was a close friend
with a cheerful and life-loving personality, and he always lamented the
absurdity of this war and how it eats the men of Iraq. We spent most of our
time together accompanied by the Commander of the Regiment, Major Abdul-Jabbar.
For several days, Captain Ibrahim
kept asking me to go to the barber, but I was not eager to go with him. Also
there was no barber in our regiment at the time, which means that we have to go
to another regiment, which was located about 10-15 minutes away by car.
One day Ibrahim said we should go to
the barber and he wanted me to go with him, so we agreed to go the next day
after dark. The next morning, at the breakfast table, he told me that today we
would go to the barber at night, and I confirmed that. When darkness fell,
Ibrahim came to my room door and said that he was waiting for me in the Waz car
(a small Russian military car that seats four people), so I told him that I
would go to the room to put on my boot and follow him.
I entered my room and sat on my bed
for some time, and I do not know the reason that prompted me to do that. Then I
went out to tell Ibrahim while he was in the car that I would not go with him
today, so he got angry and said then he would go alone. He ordered the driver
to move and with him was one of the soldiers.
I sat waiting for Ibrahim. I
expected that he would come back within an hour, but he was late. After about
two hours, the news came from one of the soldiers on the main road indicating
that one of the cars on the road was parked and broken, so I got into the car
with the commander and went to find out about the matter. When arrived, we
found Captain Ibrahim had been shot in right side of the abdomen near the
liver, and there was no sign of the driver and the accompanying soldier!
Shortly later, the commander of the
brigade (the late Sultan Hashem Ahmed, later Minister of Defense) arrived in
the region and explored the location of the accident, as it was strange that
the Iranian group could reach this area near the main road in the middle of the
valley without being discovered by our forces, which means that an Iranian group
slipped into the Iraqi forces, which were deployed at the edges of the
mountain. I was unable to explain this incident for a long time.
The brigade commander requested a
group of commandos, in addition to other forces, to patrol the mountainside in
an attempt to catch up with the infiltrating force and return the captured
soldiers. The search for them continued till dawn, but without result.
That is how comrade and friend
Ibrahim Al Wasiti was martyred.
_________________
Osama Attar Bashi, a graduate of the College of Medicine / University of Baghdad. He started his reserve military service in the Iraqi army as a lieutenant officer from September 1981 to September 1985 and served in the Iraqi army as a military doctor. He participated in the Iran-Iraq war from January 1982 until the end of his military service in 1985. He was an assistant professor at the College of Medicine / University of Sharjah 2008-2014. Currently working as a consultant physician in pediatrics and neonatology in the United Arab Emirates.
________________
Note by the Iraq History Group: The Iran-Iraq war began on September 4, 1980, when Iran bombed some Iraqi cities near the Iranian border. Click on this short summary for more information.
The Beginning of the Iran-Iraq War
September 4, 1980
A Short Summary
The Iran-Iraq war did not start on September 22, 1980, as has been reported in the Arab and world media, but rather before that.
Iraq considers the fourth of September 1980 as the first day of the outbreak of the Iraq-Iran war, based on the artillery bombardment that Iran carried out on the Iraqi cities near the Iranian border in central Iraq (like Khanaqin and Mandali). The attacks were through the main land entrance to Khanaqin.
After Iraq succeeded in regaining the lands that the Iranian forces entered, Iran escalated its attack on Iraq by using its air forces in mid-September. As a result, the Iraqis shot down an Iranian airplane and captured its captain alive. This is a significant evidence that Iran is the initiator of the war.
____________
Between January and September, 2020 we published four parts about the Iran-Iraq war in both Arabic and English, which were written by military and media personnel who participated in the war. We plan to publish additional articles by December of this year about the battles that took place between 1983 and 1988 and shed light on the prisoners of war. We invite those who served in that war to contribute to this unique documentation and email your articles to our address : historyofiraq@gmail.com
We appreciate it if you widely distribute the following four parts via email and social media:
Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 1
Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 3
Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 4
الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية : تدوين من خدموا فيها - الجزء الرابع
حادث غريب في صيف 1982
استشهاد النقيب إبراهيم الواسطي
أسامة عطار باشي
في منطقة
قريبة من مدينة "جيلان غرب"* الإيرانية والتي تبعد عن مدينة خانقين
العراقية ما يقارب 80 كم ، استقر فوجنا لمسك قاطع من الجبهة. كانت المنطقة تتكون
من سلسلتين جبلية بينهما وادي يمتد لمسافة 15-20 كم، ويتوسط الوادي طريقا معبدا
يمتد من الحدود العراقية - الإيرانية الى
داخل الأراضي الإيرانية ، و كان هناك العديد من القرى المهجورة على حافة الجبل وفي
الوادي.
شهدت المنطقة بعض المعارك قبل وصولنا وعندما كان فوجنا هناك كانت القوات الإيرانية تتمركز على قمة السلسلة الجبلية بينما تمركزت قواتنا العراقية على الحافات السفلى للسلسلة الجبلية ، كما كان بعض الجنود موجودين
في ملاجيء حماية على حافة طريق السيارات في منتصف الوادي. نتيجة لذلك التموضع كانت
الحركة محدودة جداً أثناء النهار حيث كنا نبقى يقظين طوال الليل وننام بعد بزوغ
الضوء ، ويبدأ يومنا بعد الظهرأوقبيل المغرب فنتناول الفطور بين الساعة 2 و4
تقريبا ويكون غداءُنا بعد المغرب عادة، وهكذا كانت الأيام تمضي بشكل روتيني هاديء..
لم يكن من
المتوقع حدوث مجابهات او معارك في تلك المنطقة لكون الوضع هادئا، وكان مقر فوجنا في
بداية السلسلة الجبلية على يسار الطريق، وهوعبارة عن مجموعة من البيوت الصغيرة في
احدى القرى المهجورة. كان النقيب احتياط إبراهيم من الأصدقاء المقربين ذو شخصية
مرحة محبة للحياة، ويشكو دائما من عبثية
هذه الحرب وكيف انها تأكل رجال العراق. كنا نقضي معظم الوقت سوية وبمعية آمرالفوج
الرائد عبد الجبار.
ظل النقيب
ابراهيم يطلب مني ان نذهب الى الحلاق لأيام عديدة ولكني لم أكن متحمسا للذهاب معه.
و لم يكن في فوجنا حلاقا آنذاك لذا يجب علينا ان نذهب الى مقر الفوج الآخر الذي
يبعد عنا ما يقارب 10-15 دقيقة بالسيارة.
في أحد الأيام قال ابراهيم اننا يجب
ان نذهب الى الحلاق وأرادني أذهب معه، فاتفقنا على الذهاب في اليوم التالي بعد
حلول الظلام. في الصباح وعلى مائدة الفطور قال لي ابراهيم اننا اليوم
سنذهب الى الحلاق ليلا، فأكّدت ذلك . عندما حلّ الظلام أتاني ابراهيم الى باب
غرفتي وقال انه ينتظرني في سيارة الواز (السيارة العسكرية الروسية التي
تتسع ل 4 اشخاص) ، فقلت له اني سأدخل الى الغرفة لألبس البسطال والحق به .
دخلتُ غرفتي
وجلست على سريري لبعض الوقت، ولا ادري ما السبب الذي دفعني لذلك ولكني خرجتُ لأخبر
ابراهيم وهو في السيارة بأني لن اذهب معهُ اليوم ، فغضب وقال إذن سيذهب هو لوحده ،
وأمرالسائق ان يتحرك وكان معه أحد الجنود.
جلستُ انتظر
ابراهيم . توقعتُ أن يعود بعد ما يقارب الساعة ، ولكنه تأخر وطال الإنتظار . وبعد حوالي
الساعتين جاء الخبر من أحد مواضع الجنود على الطريق الرئيسي بان احدى السيارات على
الطريق واقفة وهي معطلة، فركبتُ السيارة مع الآمر وذهبنا لإستطلاع الأمر، ولما
وصلنا وجدنا النقيب ابراهيم قد أصيب بطلق ناري في الجهة اليمنى من البطن قرب منطقة
الكبد، ولم يكن هناك أثر لمن كان معه (السائق والجندي المرافق).
بعد قليل واذا
بالسيد آمر اللواء (الشهيد سلطان هاشم احمد، وزير الدفاع فيما بعد) يحضر الى المنطقة ويستطلع مكان
الحادث، حيث كان من الغريب ان تستطيع المجموعة الإيرانية في الوصول الى هذه المنطقة قرب الطريق الرئيسي في منتصف
الوادي بدون ان يتم اكتشافها من قبل القوات القريبة، مما يعني انها قد تسللت بين
القوات العراقية المنتشرة على سفح الجبل ، ولم استطع تفسير هذا الأمر لفترة طويلة.
طلب السيد آمر
اللواء مجموعة من قوات المغاوير بالإضافة الى قوات اخرى باستطلاع وتمشيط سفح
الجبل في محاولة اللحاق بالقوة المتسللة وإعادة الجنود الأسرى ، واستمرت عملية البحث
عنهم حتى الفجر ولكن بدون نتيجة.
وهكذا استشهد الرفيق والصديق ابراهيم الواسطي .
*الجيم في كلمة "جيلان" تلفظ كالجيم المصرية
أسامة عطار باشي خريج كلية الطب / جامعة بغداد . أدى الخدمة الإلزامية في الجيش العراقي برتبة ملازم طبيب مجنّد منذ أيلول عام 1981 ولغاية أيلول 1985 . شارك في الحرب العراقية – الإيرانية في بداية 1982 ولغاية نهاية خدمته العسكرية . كان أستاذا مساعدا في كلية الطب / جامعة الشارقة 2008 – 2014 . حاليا يعمل طبيبا استشاريا في طب الأطفال وحديثي الولادة في دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة .
____________________________________________
ملاحظة من موقع تاريخ العراق : ابتدأت الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية في الرابع من أيلول 1980 عندما قصفت إيران بعض المدن العراقية القريبة من الحدود الإيرانية . أنقروا على هذه النبذة المختصرة للإطلاع .
بداية الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية
الرابع من أيلول 1980
نبذة مختصرة
الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية لم تبدأ في أيلول 22 عام 1980 كما مدون في الإعلام العربي والعالمي وإنما قبل ذلك .ا
يعتبر العراق يوم الرابع من أيلول 1980 هو اليوم الأول لإندلاع الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية ، وذلك استنادا للقصف المدفعي التي قامت به إيران على المدن العراقية القريبة من الحدود الإيرانية في وسط العراق (خانقين ومندلي)، وكان القصف عبر المنفذ البري الرئيسي في خانقين .ا
بعد أن نجح العراق في استعادة الأراضي التي دخلتها القوات الإيرانية ، صعّدت إيران من هجومها على العراق بزج قواتها الجوية على الأراضي العراقية في منتصف أيلول فأسقط العراقيون طيارة إيرانية وأسروا قائدها حيا ، وهذا دليل على أن إيران هي البادئة في الحرب .ا
تجدون تفاصيل الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية في هذا الكتاب للفريق الأول الركن نزار الخزرجي وفي هذا الكتاب لعبد الوهاب القصاب .ا
__________________
نشر موقعنا مابين كانون الثاني وأيلول أربع أجزاء باللغتين العربية والإنجليزية حول الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية حيث كتب أحداثها عسكريين وإعلاميين كانوا في الجبهة ، ونأمل أن ننشر أجزاء أخرى عن معارك الحرب التي دارت بين الأعوام 1983 و1988 خاصة معارك "توكلنا على الله " ونسلط الضوء على الأسرى والمفقودين . نوجه دعوة لمن خدم في تلك الحرب للمساهمة في التدوين وبعث مقالاتكم على عنواننا
historyofiraq@gmail.com
نأمل أن توزعوا هذه الأجزاء عبر الإيميل وشبكات التواصل الإجتماعي مع الشكر :ا
الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية : تدوين من خدموا فيها - الجزء الأول
Thursday, September 3, 2020
أكلة التفاحية من القرن الثاني عشر - Baghdad's 12th Century Recipe
وصفة التفاحيّة
كما ظهرت في كتاب محمد بن الحسن البغدادي
بعنوان "كتاب الطبيخ"ا
The Appleya* Recipe As It Appeared in the Book by
Mohammed Bin Al-Hasan Al-Baghdadi
Titled "Kitabul Tabeekh" or 'The Cooking Book"
الوصفة أعلاه أُخذت من الكتاب الذي أعاد نشره فخري البارودي في عام 1964 ، حيث كانت هناك نسخة أخرى منه نشرها داوود الجلبي الموصلي في عام 1934 ولكن للأسف لم نجد أي من صفحات كتابه على الإنترنت . كتب داوود في مقدمة نسخته بأنه وجد الكتاب مخطوطا باليد في مكتبة جامع آية صوفيا في استنبول وكان عدد صفحاته 54 ورقة .ا
لم يُذكر التاريخ المضبوط لكتاب الطبخ الذي ألفه محمد البغدادي ولكن في مقدمة كتاب داوود الموصلي ذُكر بأن الكتاب كان مؤلفا 33 سنة قبل سقوط بغداد على يد هولاكو وهذا يعني في عام 1225 .ا
طبخ التفاحية في عام 2020
طبخنا وصفة التفاحية (في ولاية ماستشوستس بأمريكا) من التفاح الأخضر الحامض كما تتطلبه الوصفة أعلاه ، ولكن بدون المستكي (المصطكي) التي ذُكر في الوصفة الأصلية لأنه غير متواجد . حاولنا قصارى جهدنا طبخها على طريقة الوصفة أعلاه مع الفوارق البسيطة التالية :ا
لم نضف للوصفة ماء على الإطلاق -
استخدمنا دجاج مع عظم بدل اللحم الأحمر -
سُلق الدجاج في الماء لمدة ساعة وربع مع القرنفل والهيل ورفعت منه الزفرة ثم -
حُوّل في قدر آخر لوحده بدون الماء وطبقنا الوصفة أعلاه
عصرنا التفاح بالعصارة الكهربائية واستخدمنا البثل (الطيني القوام) الذي يبقى عادة -
داخل العصارة بدون قشر التفاح ، لكي نحصل على صلصة ثخينة
قلينا اللوز والبصل في القليل من زيت جوز الهند ثم وضعنا عليه الدجاج المسلوق -
وبقية المحتويات المذكورة في الوصفة
أما المقادير فنوفرها لكل من يصبح متابعا لموقعنا هذا ويطلبها عبر الإيميل -
والنتيجة فالتفاحيّة كانت لذيذة جدا ولا يمكن التوقف عن أكلها ، وننوي طبخها كل شهر
ننصح بأكل هذه الطبخة لوحدها بدون رز ، بطاطة أو خبز لأن كل مايؤكل معها أقل منها لذة وسيؤثر على طعمها ويعسّرهضمها ، حيث كانت أكلة خفيفة سهلة الهضم . كما وننصح بعدم استعمال زيت الخضراوات الذي يباع حول العالم فهو مضر للغاية لإحتواءه على الذرة والصويا وكليهما محرفان وراثيا في الولايات الأمريكية واللذان تصدرهما حول العالم . استخدموا زيت جوز الهند (المعصور بدون حرارة) ، زيت السمسم ، زيت عباد الشمس أو زيت الأفوكادو إن توفروا . زيت الزيتون البكر صحي ولكن لا يجوز في الطبخ .ا
أسئلة : هل مايزال المستك يباع في العراق وفي أي المناطق يستخرج ؟
هل مايزال الكتاب الأصلي "كتاب الطبيخ" لمحمد البغدادي في استنبول ؟
هل لديكم نسخة من كتاب الطبيخ لداوود الجلبي ؟
نأمل استلام الردود عبرعنواننا على الإيميل مع جزيل الشكر
historyofiraq@gmail.com
مذكور هنا تفاصيل عن داوود الجلبي بما فيها ذكر الكتب التي نشرها ومن ضمنه "كتاب الطبيخ"ا
* We translated the recipe's name to 'Appleya' inspired by its Arabic name 'At-tuffahiya' meaning 'of apple' = 'made of apple'.
Note 1: The above recipe was documented in chapter 1 (page 17) of the republished cooking book in 1964 by Fakhri Al-Baroudi. The original book by Mohammed Bin Hasan Al-Baghdadi was handwritten in 1225 CE
Note 2: The recipe requires red meat or chicken, black pepper, coriander, ginger, mint, onions, mastic gum, cinnamon, almonds and sour apples.
Note 3: We cooked the Appleya recipe in Massachusetts (USA) as close as possible to the original recipe and was very delicious, in fact addictive. We suggest to eat it alone without potatoes, bread, pasta or rice for easy digestion and to feel better its delicious taste.
Note 4: We advise not to use vegetable oil because there is corn, soy, canola or a mixture of all of them. These oils are unhealthy because they are genetically modified in the USA (or Canada), and exports it worldwide. Healthy and easily digested oils are coconut (organic cold pressed), avocado, sesame and walnut. Virgin olive oil is healthy, but not good for cooking.
Note 5: We provide the detailed recipe via email to all those who follow us at this blog.
Friday, August 7, 2020
Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 3
The Iraqi Prisoners of War in Iran
by Nizar Assamarraei
Translated from Arabic by Wefa M. S.
Iran has exaggerated the numbers of Iraqi soldiers and officers it captured in the battles during the eight-year war, as the sources of command and control in the battles have multiplied, especially since the regular forces have compiled the numbers of all Iraqi losses in one statement, but the Revolutionary Guards have their data as well as the Basij (mobilization of guards) have their data, and each of them, due to lack of coordination, issues figures from one battle, then multiply the numbers without real change in the numbers of the prisoners.
The first major loss to Iraq in term of
killed soldiers and the number of prisoners was in the battle of Shush-Dezful,
which started on March 21, 1982, as the total numbers announced by various
Iranian forces were more than 14 thousand prisoners. After that, what happened
in the battle to restore the Iranian forces control of the city of Muhammarah
(which began on the night of April 30, 1982 by crossing the Karun River from Al-
Tahiri area to enter the Muhammarah itself on May 21 1982) was that it ended in
all its stages on day 24 / 5/1982. The
Muhammarah battle, according to the data provided by the forces participating
in the attack, resulted in the capture of 19,000 Iraqi prisoners.
The International Committee of the Red
Cross used the official numbers announced by Iran, and began operating in the
Iranian camps where Iraqi prisoners' are held, despite all restrictions imposed
on the committee, and despite the existence of secret camps, which included
thousands of punished and hidden prisoners. The committee formed a general idea
and dealt with the numbers as if they were the real numbers for Iraqi prisoners,
and estimated them to be around 85,000. That
is why the committee has been calling for their release all together, based on
the principle of all-for-all. Because of
the difficult circumstances in Iraq that accompanied his entry into Kuwait
shortly after the Iran-Iraq war, which was followed by Arab and international isolation;
Iraq was ready to show flexibility to Iran.
The exchange of prisoners between the two
countries began on August 17, 1990 and continued until September 15, 1990 when
Iran returned from the Khusrawi-Munthiriya border point a large number of Iraqi
prisoners to their camps on the pretext that there were no corresponding numbers
of Iranian prisoners released.
The number of prisoners exchanged until 9/15/1990, according to the data announced in the media, was 36 thousand prisoners from each country, meaning the total number that crossed the border points reached 72 thousand prisoners. In a single day, 17/8/1990, Iraq released seven thousand Iranian prisoners.
Negotiations, between the permanent
representative of Iraq at the European headquarters of the United Nations and
his Iranian counterpart, began to resolve this awkward file, as Iraq has
maintained that it does not keep one prisoner who meets the criteria of POWs. But following the circumstances of the
American bombing of Iraq and the failure of the Shabania uprising in 1991, Iran
accepted the status quo and began sending groups of Iraqi prisoners from 1992
until 5/5/2003
After being captured for twenty years, I
returned to Iraq from Al-Mundhiriya crossing point on 22/1/2002, with a group of
approximately 650 prisoners. Following that date, a group of Iraqi prisoners was
released on the night of the American-British aggression against Iraq in 2003, which
was the night of 19/20 March, and then was followed by the last group of Iraqi
prisoners released on 5/5/2003, in which Major General Khamis Al-Alwani (who recently
died on 15 June 2020) was released. I do not have any information about the
numbers of prisoners for these last two groups.
We can classify Iraqi prisoners as follows:
1. The
prisoners who were returned to Iraq under the rules of official exchange all
through 5/5/2003, and who were in the tens of thousands without recognizing the
total number due to inconsistency in this field.
2. A
large number of the prisoners were influenced by the Iranian sectarian and
political propaganda machine, left the national ranks and became in the
category of those who repented. In one day in November 1982 and during the
first military parade held by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, 15 thousand prisoners from those who repented were parading. Pressure continued on Iraqi prisoners with
physical and psychological torture, medical neglect, starvation, isolation from
the outside world, while blocking the media, forced so many of them to turn
from an Iraqi fighter in the Iraqi army’s ranks into a recruiter fighting
against his country on the side of the enemy.
Many of them became part of the Iranian social fabric, married to
Iranians and settled there.
3. As
a result of the numerous uprisings in the camp to protest against abuse, the
Iranian forces opened fire on the prisoners and killed large numbers of them,
and for this they don’t return their bodies because the evidence of killing is
clear on them. Added to that is the large numbers of those who lost their lives
as a result of outbreaks of infectious diseases such as bloody diarrhea.
4. Many soldiers were killed during the fighting, as their bodies remained in no man’s land* and were not evacuated, and therefore considered prisoners.
* ‘No man’s land’ is a military term that refers to the land separating between the forces of two combat countries and cannot be reached due to fighting.
________________________________
Nizar Assamaraie, a graduate from Al-Mustansiriya University, specializing in International law. He was born in Baghdad 1943. Assamarraei 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 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 while a prisoner in Iran titled, “In the Palaces of Ayatollahs”
الحرب العراقية - الإيرانية : تدوين من خدموا فيها - الجزء الثالث
الأسرى العراقيون في إيران
نزار السامرائي
بالغت إيران في أرقام الجنود والضباط
العراقيين الذين أسّرتهم في المعارك طوال حرب الثماني سنوات، حيث تعددت مصادر
القيادة والسيطرة في المعارك، لا سيما أن القوات النظامية لها تقوم بتجميع أرقام
الخسائر العراقية كلها في بيان واحد، لكن للحرس الثوري بياناته وكذلك البسيج
(تعبئة الحرس) له بياناته وكل منهما وبسبب عدم التنسيق يصدر أرقاما عن أعداد
لمعركة واحدة لتتضاعف الأرقام من دون حصول تغيير حقيقي في أعداد الأسرى.
أول خسارة كبرى للعراق في الأرض وعدد الأسرى
كانت في معركة الشوش- دزفول التي انطلقت في 21 آذار 1982 إذ كان مجمل الأرقام التي
أعلنتها مختلف القوات الإيرانية تزيد على 14 ألف أسير. بعد ذلك ما حصل في معركة
إعادة سيطرة القوات الإيرانية على مدينة المحمرة (التي بدأت ليلة 30 نيسان على 1
أيار 1982 بعبور نهر الكارون من منطقة الطاهري وتم تطويرها للدخول إلى المحمرة
نفسها في 21 /5 /1982) هو أنها انتهت بكل مراحلها في يوم 24 /5 / 1982 وأسفرت
المعركة عن سقوط 19 ألف عراقي أسير لدى القوات الإيرانية وفقا لما ورد في بيانات
القوات المشاركة في الهجوم.
استعانت اللجنة الدولية للصليب الأحمر بالأرقام
الرسمية المعلنة من إيران ، كما أن اللجنة بدأت تنشط في معسكرات الأسرى العراقيين
في إيران ، رغم كل القيود المفروضة عليها ورغم وجود معسكرات سرية تضم الآلاف من
الأسرى المعاقبين والمخفيين، كونت فكرة أساسية وبدأت تتعامل معها وكأنها أرقام
حقيقية لعدد الأسرى العراقيين، إذ قدرتهم بحدود 85 ألفا. لهذا راحت تطالب بإطلاق
سراحهم جميعا استنادا إلى مبدأ الكل مقابل الكل، وبسبب ظروف العراق الصعبة التي
رافقت دخوله إلى الكويت وما تعرض له من عزلة عربية ودولية صارعلى استعداد لإبداء
مرونة لإيران.
بدأ تبادل الأسرى بين البلدين في يوم 17 /8
/1990 واستمر إلى يوم 15/ 9 /1990 عندما أعادت إيران من نقطة الحدود خسروي-
المنذرية عددا كبيرا من الأسرى العراقيين إلى معسكراتهم بحجة عدم وجود ما يقابلهم
من الأسرى الإيرانيين.
كان عدد الأسرى الذين تم تبادلهم حتى يوم
15/ 9 /1990 ، وفق البيانات المعلنة في
أجهزة الإعلام ، 36 ألف أسير من كلا البلدين، أي أن العدد الكلي الذي تم دفعه عبر
نقاط الحدود وصل إلى 72 ألف أسير. في يوم واحد المصادف 17 /8 / 1990 دفع العراق سبع
آلاف أسير إيراني .
انطلقت مفاوضات ماراثونية بين مندوب العراق
الدائم في المقر الأوربي للأمم المتحدة ونظيره الإيراني، لحلحلة هذا الملف
المتعثر، حيث ظل العراق يؤكد على أنه لا يحتفظ بأسير واحد ممن تنطبق عليه مواصفات
أسرى حرب، وبعد ظروف القصف الأمريكي للعراق وفشل الانتفاضة الشعبانية عام 1991،
ركنت إيران إلى منطق القبول بالأمر الواقع فباشرت بإرسال
دفعات من الأسرى العراقيين ابتداء من الأعوام 1992 ووصولا إلى آخر دفعة في 5 /5
/2003.
بعد أسر دام عشرين عاما ، عدتُ إلى العراق من
معبر المنذرية يوم 22 / 1/ 2002 ضمن دفعة
تتألف من 650 أسير تقريبا . بعد ذلك أطلق سراح أسرى عراقيين في ليلة العدوان
الأمريكي- البريطاني على العراق عام 2003 أي ليلة 19 على 20 آذار 2003، ثم أعقبتها
الدفعة الأخيرة من الأسرى العراقيين يوم 5 / 5/ 2003 والتي أعيد فيها اللواء الركن
خميس العلواني (الذي توفي مؤخرا في 15 حزيران 2020). لا أمتلك أية معلومات عن
أعداد الأسرى لهاتين الدفعتين .
يمكننا تصنيف الأسرى العراقيين المفترضين
في إيران على النحو التالي:-
1 – الأسرى الذين تمت إعادتهم إلى العراق بموجب
قواعد التبادل الرسمي والذي استمر على دفعات حتى يوم 5 /5 / 2003 ، والذين وصلوا إلى
عشرات الآلاف من دون أن نستطيع الإلمام بعددهم الكلي بسبب التضارب الحاصل في هذا
المجال.
2 – الأسرى الذين أثرت عليهم ماكنة الدعاية الطائفية والسياسية الإيرانية، فغادروا الصف الوطني وأصبحوا في خانة ما يسمى بالتوابين، وهؤلاء بأعداد كبيرة جدا، ففي يوم واحد وأثناء أول عرض عسكري أقامه المجلس الأعلى للثورة الإسلامية في تشرين الثاني 1982 في العراق تم استعراض 15 ألف أسير من التوابين، وتواصلت عمليات الضغط على الأسرى بالتعذيب الجسدي والنفسي والإهمال الطبي والتجويع والعزل عن العالم الخارجي وحجب الإعلام، فتحول كثير منهم من مقاتل عراقي في صف الجيش العراقي، إلى مجند يقاتل ضد بلده في صف العدو، وخرج كثيرون إلى المجتمع الإيراني وتزوجوا وانقطعت صلتهم بالعراق منذ ذلك الوقت.
3 – نتيجة الانتفاضات العديدة التي شهدتها
المعسكرات احتجاجا على سوء المعاملة، قامت القوات الإيرانية بفتح النار على الأسرى
وقتلت أعداد كبيرة منهم، ولهذا لا تستطيع إعادة جثامينهم لأن أدلة القتل واضحة
عليها، هذا إضافة إلى من فقد حياته نتيجة تفشي الأمراض المعدية مثل الإسهال الدموي
وهم بأعداد كبيرة أيضا.
4 - قُتل الكثير من العسكريين أثناء المعارك ، حيث بقيت جثامينهم في الأراضي التي يطلق عليها عسكريا بالأرض الحرام* ولم يتم إخلاءُها ، وبالتالي اعتبروا أسرى .
* الأرض الحرام هي الأرض الفاصلة بين قوات بلدين متحاربين لا يمكن الوصول اليها بسبب نيران الأسلحة من قبل الطرفين .
___________________
نزار السامرائي خريج الجامعة المستنصرية كلية القانون وله دكتوراه قانون إنساني دولي. ولد في بغداد عام 1943 . شغل منصب مدير دائرة الإعلام الداخلي في وزارة الثقافة والإعلام في بداية عقد الثمانينيات. أسر خلال عمليات الشوش دزفول في يوم الأربعاء 24/ 3/ 1982 وبقي في سجون إيران عشرون سنة ثم أطلق سراحه في يوم الثلاثاء 22 /1/ 2002 ووصل الى بيته في اليوم التالي ، الأربعاء 23 . خلال وجوده في الأسر تم نقله إلى وظيفة مدير عام في ديوان رئاسة الجمهورية. نشر كتاب "في قصورآيات الله" عن يومياته وهو أسيرفي سجون إيران .
Friday, July 24, 2020
Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 2
The Battles of The Shush-Dezful and Al-Tahiri Regions
by Osama AttarBashi
by Osama AttarBashi
After completing the Medical Internship in September 1981, I was
enrolled in the Military Medical Training School in Al-Rashid Camp, which was a
requirement to prepare junior doctors to serve as army lieutenants (officers).
The training was completed at the end of 1981.
At the beginning of 1982, I was assigned to the 2nd
regiment Brigade, which was based in northern Iraq at the Deeralok area (near
the city of Amadiyah). This was actually a training period for the regiment
(and the Brigade as a whole), which was one of the newly formed brigades to
support the army with new military forces. We spent nearly two months there,
enjoying ourselves with nature’s beauty, unaware of the storms we will
encounter in this enduring war.
At the end of
February, orders were issued to our unit to move to a training camp on the
outskirts of Mosul, after just two weeks, we were instructed to move to the
Shush-Dezful area inside the Iranian territories (adjacent to Iraq’s Maysan Governorate)
around mid-March. These orders were allotted as it became clear that Iranian
troops were preparing for a major assault in that area. We arrived to that
sector of the battle front at night, and most of the members of the regiment
did not have any previous experience in the battles that have taken place so
far. As soon as we arrived, the Iranian troops spotted our unit, and heavy
artillery shelling began, which resulted in some losses in our unit, even
before we knew our location in that region.
Our regiment was
eventually placed in one of the front-line breakers, and it was on a hill
overlooking a valley extending for some kilometres. The acting commander in
charge of the regiment at the time was Major Abdul Jabbar who was from the city
of Amara, because the commander Lt. Colonel Hamza was on sick leave since January due to a herniated disc of the
spine. We stayed for two or three days in that area with no real enemy
encounter, but then the next morning we woke up on a battle of tanks &
armored vehicles in the valley facing us. The battle continued throughout the
day until darkness settled, and then we saw the exchange of fire in the area
behind us on the side of the Iraqi forces. Most of us did not understand exactly what was
happening because we lacked experience in the battlefield, so I communicated to
the acting commander Major Abdul Jabbar that the Iranians may have penetrated
Iraqi defenses.
We woke up next
morning to find out that the tanks we were watching in the valley the previous
day had all disappeared and the battlefield was terrifyingly calm. I began to
worry and asked the acting commander Major Abdul Jabbar to contact the brigade
headquarters to inquire about the situation, but we could not secure any
contact. Then the acting commander requested from the artillery monitor
to ask his unit to start shelling the convoys of Iranian soldiers heading
towards us; but the artillery monitor's response was appalling as he informed
us that the target was outside the scope of the artillery coverage, which meant
that the artillery unit retreated from their position of the previous day.
Fear and
anxiety began to circulate among us. When I saw the Iranian convoys
getting close to us, I suggested to the Major to begin withdrawing immediately,
but he was afraid and hesitant, so he assigned an officer, Lieutenant Abdel
Karim, to go to the headquarters of the brigade by car to investigate the
matter. But shortly later, he returned panicking when he saw the Iranians have
taken control over the main road and his car was shot by them.
Then everyone
was convinced that staying in our place is a kind of suicide, which meant death
or captured by Iranians, so everyone started to withdraw towards the valley on
foot. The commander Lt. Colonel Hamza was lying on bed because he was
complaining of severe back pain. He had just arrived the night before and had
no idea what was happening, so we asked him to come with us. Though he initially
refused to accompany us, we insisted that he comes with us or else we would not
leave. We began descending to the valley and only few of us were still there
(the commander and his deputy, few soldiers and I). After walking for about 15 minutes, one of the warrant officers who
was in charge of managing the highly classified orders and letters of the
regiment, said that he had forgotten to bring these files with him and
decided to bring them back. We tried to persuade him not to go, but he insisted on
returning to the regiment's positions. He
never came back.
We continued
walking in the muddy valley with the Commander slowing our pace due to his back
pain, but we were determined not to leave him. At many points during our path
we were subjected to shooting by Iranian soldiers or sometimes from a plane. The
scene was more like a movie.
After a nearly
4-hour walk (approximately 10 km) we arrived. By then everyone else had already
arrived to the area that became the first line of defense for the Iraqi forces.
Meaning we were walking all that distance in an area that was eventually captured
by the Iranians.
Al-Tahiri Battle
In late
April 1982, our brigade (602) was given orders to move to Al-Tahiri area,
located in the northeast of Basra city as the intelligence information was
indicating that the Iranian forces were preparing for a major military attack
on the Mohammara region. The area in
which our brigade has spread is flat, sandy and wet ground filled with
groundwater. In this area, our regiments
were positioned at the front defensive line and the Battalion command unit was approximately
500 meters behind the regiments.
The early
days were quiet, and things were normal. We enjoyed regular vacations. I went
on vacation to Baghdad and one or two days after my return to the Battalion,
the Iranians suddenly began attacking our regiment and all neighboring units at
night with artillery shelling, especially the units stationed on the front
line. We witnessed the explosions and
fires nonstop, the exchange of machine guns, and then the shelling continued
pouring at the headquarters of the regiment.
After a couple of hours, it became evident to us that the Iranians severely inflicted our forces at the front line. Our soldiers began retreating from the front
lines. They were tired and in bad spirits, and some of them talked about the
martyrs they saw.
It became
clear to us that the Iranians broke through the first line of defense as they
advanced with their forces heading towards the international borders. At that time, the commander “Abdul Jabbar”
decided to call the headquarters of the brigade that was 2-3 km behind us, but the call did not materialize
because all means of communications (wired and wireless) were interrupted. The number of retreated soldiers increased
rapidly, so the battalion commander decided to withdraw and head for the
brigade headquarters to inquire about the battle’s new orders and the role of our
battalion. We got in the car (Russian-made Waz) with the battalion commander
along with the driver and two other soldiers.
When we reached the brigade’s headquarters, we found no one, and it
seemed they left the place. As we were
heading to the car, I saw a group of Iranian soldiers heading towards us, and suddenly
an explosion erupted close to us. I
yelled to fellow group, “Has anyone been injured?” All of us were fine except for the soldier
who was wounded in the leg. The driver told us that two of the car wheels had
exploded as a result of the explosion, despite that we had to use it
nonetheless.
We drove for
a distance of approximately 5-7 km until we reached the control point near
Shalamja border station. The military
police (MP) soldiers, who seemed confused, yelled at us because we left our
positions, and they did not allow us to pass, but when they realized that one
of the soldiers was wounded, they allowed us to pass. We carried the injured soldier to the victims’
collection site and stayed in that area until the next day.
Next morning,
someone told us that our brigade’s forces were gathering in one of the nearby
palm groves. So, we headed to that area to
reorganize our brigade’s personnel and await the orders.
Many groups
of the Popular Army* arrived from Baghdad and other cities to the region of palm groves. Most of them neither had an idea about the battle
nor acquired military training or experience of the battlefields. A good percentage of them were under the age
of 18. One of them cried as he relayed his fear to me that he left his home and mother for the first time.
We waited in
that area for a day, when the news alerted us that our brigade would be
dispatched to the Muhammarah region the next day. Our battalion had already lost
more than half of its fighters, but still we began preparing to move on the
following day.
Next day, we
received news that the orders have changed and that we would
not transfer to the Muhammarah district, instead we would be sent to another
area to reorganize and complete the brigade’s shortcomings of personnel and
equipment. Next morning, the brigade’s divisions
began moving towards the outskirts of the Jalawla city in Diyala Governorate
for the purpose of reorganizing and training.
*Militarized units of civilians that were
added to the professional army units during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988)
-----------------
Al-Tahiri Battle was translated from Arabic by Wefa M. S.
Edited by Osama
Osama Attar Bashi, a graduate of the College of Medicine / University of Baghdad. He started his reserve military service in the Iraqi army as a lieutenant officer from September 1981 to September 1985 and served in the Iraqi army as a military doctor. He participated in the Iran-Iraq war from January 1982 until the end of his military service in 1985. He was an assistant professor at the College of Medicine / University of Sharjah 2008-2014. Currently working as a consultant physician in pediatrics and neonatology in the United Arab Emirates.
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