Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 28, 1988

Near Maragheh, I prayed the morning prayer on the train. The companions went down and prayed at the station. We had breakfast. Then Mohsen and his friends in the rocket group came to Kupe and explained about the program and progress report. from traveling to North Korea and visiting their missile manufacturing center; They are very satisfied. They have gained a lot of information. They are influenced by Hitler's persistence in launching the German missile center in World War II and explained that the Islamic Republic should give high priority to this work because of the war, and they have the right.

We got off at the station before Maragheh. The cars went ahead and were ready. We got on and headed towards the war zone. The car of the rocket group was in Maragheh. They went there and then joined us. In East Azerbaijan, the snow has melted in the plains, but there is still snow in the highlands. We passed the cities of Maragheh, Malekan, Miandoab, Bonab, Bukan and Saqez. In Kurdistan, the ground and heights are still completely covered with snow and it is melting. The rivers are raging and getting more raging. We reached the city of Baneh at noon.

Mr. Nasrallahi, the commander of the army, was waiting for us at the place of the army. Prayers, lunch and a short rest were performed. Mr. Askari, the commander of the Kurdistan Army, came. For the new armies that have recently come from the south to the north, a halting place was requested. They expect the army to hand over more places to them.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, we left for Dawoodabadi camp in Maut region of Iraq. The weather was cloudy. I was not worried about the enemy's air attack. The road is very bad and it took three and a half hours to cover 68 kilometers. We arrived at the camp around half past seven.

It had started to rain. Part of the route is in the crosshairs of the Iraqi forces who are stationed in the high altitudes of the "Gamu" region and unfortunately they can control the movement of our forces and if they want to fire on the road, but usually they do not fire; It is not clear why?

The commanders of the camp and operating units explained about the future operations and the reason for the delay. Deterioration of roads, heavy rains, delays in the construction of gravel roads and bridges, and the presence of moonlight are some of the delay factors. This operation was supposed to be done on 20th of Bahman, then it was postponed to 25th of Bahman, then to 5th of March, and then to 8th of March, and finally, all the conditions and preparations were not ready, and I came here to investigate the reasons for the delay. The forces that we have sent to the Taliban region to attack the enemy from behind during future operations have been in trouble due to Iraq's pressure on the Taliban and the use of chemical weapons and artillery in the Taliban region, and 13 of them have been martyred and 100 others have been injured due to chemical bombs. They wanted us to call them back to our region, which was accepted, and we insisted that they stay there and support the Taliban for resistance.

Mr. [Ali] Fazli, Commander of the 10th Division, Seyyed al-Shohda (a.s.), along with my son Mahdi, have gone to investigate the area, and as a result, we could not see Mahdi. Yasser is also in Miandoab and we did not see him either.

Finally, we emphasized on the same time that was determined by the camp to carry out the operation. Due to the density of our forces in the region and the intensity of artillery fire, we have daily casualties that are difficult for the forces to bear. I said that they should be scattered as much as possible. The meeting lasted until half past two in the morning. It is raining heavily. We only slept for two or three hours. We were on the train last night and we had little sleep.