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(Translation of the picture, Martyrs 1036):

 

 

…Saddam Hussein has reached out his hand to compromise; we will not compromise with him… Our duty is to protect and guard Islam. If we die we have done our duty, if we kill we have also done our duty…

 

(The text in this picture is a part of the earlier translated text from the picture 1035, which is Imam Khomeini’s speech on the matter of the cease-fire with Iraq on the 9/27 – 1980):

 

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(Translation of the picture, Martyrs 1037):

 

 

 

3. The western axis (Shalamcheh Road)

 

When the enemy had advanced close to the New Bridge (Polle Nou, in farsi), a group of 17 Pasdaries, after their deficient demolition of the New Bridge, had set up a position on the east of the bridge with little equipment. Before sunrise, an Iraqi special battalion was ready on foot on the west of the bridge, so that together with armed forces on the north side (the axis of the Ahvaz-Khorramshahr road) they could go into the town via Shalamcheh road. However, with a surprise attack, the forces of Pasdaries killed some of the Iraqi soldiers and the rest of them ran away. After this unsuccessful struggle, the enemy with its armed forces from the north side of the Shalamcheh road advanced under the shelter of its crowded firing to the close of the Doorband post of duty. The few defenders of the New Bridge, who had retreated and at this post were attacked by the invaders’ tanks with their little ability, were forced to retreat to the New Bridge.

 

(Text under the upper picture):

 

Imam Khomeini Road on 9/25 – 1980.         

 

(Text under the picture in the middle):

 

The Revolution Road (Chasebi), the warriors being dispatched to other areas.

 

(Text under the picture at the bottom):

 

The Khorramshahr Bridge – the only way left to defense of the city.

 

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(Translation of the picture, Martyrs 1039):

 

 

The city of Khorramshahr graduated after a while to a military zone so it could get ready for an epic defense and fate. The enemy attacks in the last three days resulted in the killing and wounding of many people and in the destruction of many buildings. The water, electricity and radio connections were lost and many warehouses, stores and … become bait to the fires. The governorship, city hall, fire office, water organization and the department of electricity, phone and radio was constantly struggling to make the necessary moves and to provide assistance. Some families were leaving the city. Some of the townsmen were just thinking of the defense of the city together with the military forces. Others like the ordinary people one after the other and in small groups from all over the country were joining the defense forces in Khorramshahr. The news of the enemy’s advance had created so much danger and inflammation that some groups of people went to the gates of the city in order to stop the enemy movements alone with their own armory and will to fight. Others went to the post of duty of Sepahe Pasdaran and jame’ mosque to find out what to do. On the request of Mohammad Jahan-Ara (the commander of Sepahe Pasdaran in Khorramshahr), all the mosques and Hussein-houses (Shiite religious houses, used for sectarian mourning of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein) were opened. All the arms of the Sepahe Pasdaran forces, which included light arms and some arms from the Dezh Garrison, were transferred to the mosques. The jame’ mosque was now the center of command, support and assistance, the forces’ gathering place and the place for information exchange. Any help from the people arrived at this place and from this place the defense posts were nourished. The dispatched forces were organized in the jame’ mosque. The wounded were also brought to this place. At the end of the third day (on 9/24 – 1980), the enemy advanced to the back of Nahre Arayez and Seyl-Bandan, beginning to settle itself in this area. Attacking several areas and advancing the fronts and firing on the city, the enemy in this way tried to involve the defending forces in several places, so that they could surround the city and get to the Mard area and at last make a totally blockade around Khorramshahr. The Sepahe Pasdaran forces together with the forces from other cities and with the help from people of the city, military and gendarmerie forces, with their settlements in the several areas where the enemy forces could enter through, commenced their basic resistance.

 

(Text at the bottom of this picture):

 

The fourth day of the war

 

In the morning of 9/25 – 1980, the Iraqis operated from three axes:

1. The north axis (Ahvaz Road).

The Iraqi armed forces continued their movement from the Ahvaz Road to the south. Some of the defenders took a stand against them, with 106-millimeter guns. Because of the struggle of the fighters and the vastness of the land, which gave the enemy a large area of maneuver area, and the heavy firing of the tanks, the Iraqis advanced ahead and this situation caused the fall of the Dezh Garrison. A vehicle loaded with 106-millimeter guns went to the Ebareh area. With reorganization in the back of flood stopper, they attacked the enemy from the flank. Two tanks and some other vehicles were destroyed and at the end the Iraqis were stopped.

 

(Text under the upper picture):      

 

Jame’ mosque of Khorramshahr – fighters’ center of the command.

 

(Text under the portrait in the middle):

 

The martyr, Mohammad Jahan-Ara, commander of the Sepahe Pasdaran in Khorramshahr.

 

(Text under the lower picture):

 

Jame’ mosque – center of supporting for the defenders.

 

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(Translation of the picture, Martyrs 1048):

 

 

Region of stability 19

Army commander, the martyr of Behrooz Moradi

 

On the date 13 October 1380, the enemy had surrounded the city. We were as if out of our minds. Someone had said that the enemy would take over the city before nightfall and the bridge would be in the hand of the Iraqis in no more than 24 hours. We told them that you can leave if you want, but we will not abandon the city because that would not match our ideology. In war Imam Ali the Excellent dressed himself in chains in front and not at the back, because he wanted to teach us that he is not the man who turns his back on the enemy. We betray his lesson of fail to follow his orders.

That day some went away but we stayed, the children who should stay in the town. Those who were pure stayed.

 

(Text under the picture of the bridge):

 

The Koran and Jihad

 

(From “Repentance” 9:16 of the Koran, after M.H. Shakir's translation):

 

What! do you think that you will be left alone while Allah

has not yet known those of you who have struggled hard and

have not taken any one as an adherent besides Allah and His

Apostle and the believers; and Allah is aware of what you do.

 

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(Translation of the picture, Martyrs 1051):

 

 

The rising of the city

 

In the 48 hours that were left before the last stage of our operations, we wanted to find a route for our brothers to enter. This route was a passage at the border of the dusty and non-asphalted route, separated from the enemy mine field by just one and a half meters. At the beginning of the attack, we used this passage, and two battalions from our brigade, the Ammar and the Ensar-ol-rasool battalion, crossed along this passage. The enemy firing machines that were settled on the embankment of the flood stopper did not allow us to do any activity. Due to this problem, one of the chiefs of the Ensar-ol-rasool battalion, our brother Naser Salehi, told the fighters: “Move brothers! Do you not see that the Imam of our times is with you and that he is walking on this soil together with us?”

However, the other brothers showed a little weakness and when Naser Salehi discovered this weakness he pulled the safety bolt of three grenades and ran to the embankment of the flood stopper, while he hurled the grenades towards the enemy fire. He demolished the firing machines of the enemy while he died and became a martyr. At the end and with divine strength our brothers arrived at the asphalted road of Khorramshahr-Shalamcheh.  

 

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(Translation of the picture, Martyrs 1052):

 

 

(Text under the portrait):

 

O ambassador (God),  o you who are sitting at the shore of the beginning to the end of existence, come with thy hand and pull us, the weak habit, the graveyard sitters, out of this dirty water.

 

(Text under the mark or the flower):

 

Center for art and culture, municipality of Teheran

 

(The text in the triangle):

 

A page for tomorrow

 

The truth is that I do not have anything to write about. That is why I am sometimes compelled to write you about the birds and sometimes about the fish at the bottom of the river. When I wrote the last letter (after the founding of Mahmood-Reza Dashti’s bones) I was very distressed, I desired some man of God to slap my face hard, so that I would have a reason to cry. However, what can we do when so many of the grudges are suffocated in our throats? The tears have not yet dried out on our face before another accident happens and there is not much time to think about the events and the moments and the sphere of operation. The days one after another and then the weeks and then we ourselves are passing by, like the train wagons one after the other passing by, crying that you are everyone and each of these wagons, in which depots of remembrance are hidden. Afterwards, when all the spheres are out of tension and emotion and you are sitting in the corner of a room as I am, when tranquility is manifested, then you understand where you were and where you are now.

That day you looked after a (wheel)barrow in order to take a wounded man to the jame’ mosque. Yesterday in the alleys behind the flower shop, the corps of Sami and Mahmood were there like they were praying and today you see their pictures on the wall of the prayer house. The shouts of those days painted red lines at the chest of the sky and were telling, “O come and help us, the children are massacred” and no one answered but God. O God where were we? What has happened with us? Does anybody know about the spirit of the oppressed children of God? Or are people just thinking about their water heater, carpets and stove? Is anyone aware of the dance of death? Does anyone know how the blood of these epic creators is shed in the streets of the city, inside the smoke and ashes of enemy mortar explosions? Or are people still thinking about the opening of the borders so they can go and meet their friends in foreign destinations? – And so they could sit under the red electric bulb in the middle of the cigarette smoke and drink red wine and, if they could, dance too… is there not a lot of difference between these two things? Do you see any differences between that red electric bulb and the red stuff here?

… Look at me, I am happy about the peace I have here, which allows me to think about the past in a moment of time, without knowing that this is just the beginning. I told myself that if I for some days returned from the frontlines it would strengthen my morale, without knowing that the man (human!) in that place is buried alive. Then I also turned my head around and went back to the place where I was at first.

 

Written after leave of absence in the month of Shahrivar, city of Abadan 1982, in the Persian Hotel, room 233, Behrooz Moradi.