متن کتاب "بستان"

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH

Preface
After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the Baathist Iraqi regime led by Saddam Hossein, coveted Iran’s territory. The Iranian army had been weakened due to the change in government ¸ fleeing of the some of their com-manders while others had been arrested and exe-cuted by the revolutionaries. Saddam Hossein sought an opportunity through Western and Arab countries' support to attack Iran.
In addition to the border clashes, Iraqi merce-naries distributed arms among people in southern Iran, planted bombs and blew up oil pipelines.
Saddam was also attentive to the situation in-side Iraq. In addition, considering economic status of his people, he was preparing them to fight Iran psychologically.
Immediately after the air attacks launched on September 22, Saddam, with a triumphant smile on his face, said, “We will crush the Iranians in half an hour.” He and the other leaders of the Baath party had concluded that they could over-run Iran in three days.
 Saddam had focused on Khuzestan province as the 1st goal. Occupation of this region was important to the Iraqis from various viewpoints:
1- Iraq could have extended its sea borders.
2- The influence of Iraq in the Persian Gulf would considerably increase.
 3-Khuzestan was a fertile plain; In addition, it enjoyed huge oil and gas reserves and could greatly increase Iraq’s clout in the oil market.
The Baathist regime was so sure that even be-fore attacking Iran, had renamed some Iranian cities to bring local people in line with their wishes. Khorramshahr was called "Mohammara", Abadan was renamed Ebbadan and Susangerd was named Khafajiyeh!!
But: what happened was quite different from their wishes …

 

 

 

 

Bostan is a district of Dasht-e Azadegan City in Khuzestan province. The city is limited to Dehloran from north, to Dezful (east-wise), to Susnagerd from southeast, to Hoveizeh from south and to Iraq (west-wise).
The Karkheh River, originating from Alvand and Gero mountains lies close to this town and ends in Hur al-Azim marsh.
Bostan is a part of Khuzestan Plain and is not high. However, sand dunes and low mountains in northeast of the town are called Mishdagh.
Oil and sand are major mineral resources which will be more plentiful toward north of Bostan, near the Fakkeh village.
The climate in Bostan is warm and humid ac-companied with sandstorms in the summer. The highest temperature in summer reaches 50 de-grees while the lowest temperature falls to zero in winter. Average precipitations in Bostan amount to 150 mm.
The people of Bostan and adjacent villages come mainly from Bani Taraf tribe as well as Houses of Sayyah, Mahavi, Saeed and Monshar. The local people’s race is Aryan or Semite. The people of Bostan speak Arabic and Farsi and their religion is Islam-both Shias and Sunnis.
Economic fundaments of Bostan include agri-culture, livestock breeding, handicrafts and fish-ing.
Agricultural products of Bostan include wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, and fodder. The river’s water is usually pumped to farmlands. There are also permanent agricultural activities.
Livestock products are common in Bostan and are even exported to nearby cities. Major stock bred in this region includes bulls, buffalos, sheep and camel. Handicrafts are also common in Bostan and include jajim (coarse rugs), cloak and mats.
The district center of Bostan has been named such since half a century ago. Before that, it was among prosperous villages of Dasht-e Azadegan, but its historical background is not exactly known. Of course, the region dates back to before Islam and the era of Sassanids.
Abidavi, a villager from Saeediyeh says, “The Iraqis sent trained local forces to attack our vil-lage before the war. Before attacks, they fre-quented the village. They had talked about attack-ing the village with some people in the village. They emphasized that Saeediyeh is sure to be liberated from revolutionary guards and then, with people’s help, other parts of Bostan should be freed from the hands of the Iranian forces.”
Afterwards, people went to revolutionary guards’ headquarters as well as district governor and gendarmerie and informed them. The people asked the authorities to send forces there and prepared to defend the town. Several hours later, combatants from Islamic Revolution Guards Corps based in Susangerd and Bostan arrived in the village and took up positions with the help of locals, in sensitive areas and around passages. Shortly, reinforcement along with semi-heavy weapons arrived from Ahwaz.
Early next morning, boats carrying forces in-cluding Iraqi army and separatists, passed through water passages of Hur al-Azim and tried to em-bark on the land. Attackers carried rocket pro-pelled grenades (RPGs), machine guns and even mortar launchers. They had already surveyed the region. Therefore, they thought that there would be not military resistance to be met.
It was then that they were surprised by revolu-tionary guards who had arrived from Bostan, Susnagerd and Ahwaz. Despite their panic, as-sailants managed to land due to their superior number and continued to fight. However, Iranian combatants were more powerful and the assail-ants were forced to flee, leaving behind heavy casualties.
The Iraqis, disappointed with their effort, tried to find a way. They distributed firearms among people through Bostan border point to foster inse-curity in Bostan, Dasht-e Azadegan and the whole Khuzestan province.
Later on, the Iraqis planted bombs in various places to make the region more unsafe and tried to draw the world’s attention through such ef-forts. Gholamali Jahanbakhsh, one of the then officials of Bostan, recalls:
“During early (Iranian year) 1358 (1979-80), the Iraqis fired rocket propelled grenades at Bostan with the help of separatists. They even planted mines along the road. As soon as we heard the blast, we chased them along with elite forces of Susangerd’s revolutionary guards as well as gendarmes who were commanded by a brave officer, called Major Kazemi. During the chase, we also fired at them.”
Mansour Saedi, a resident of Bostan says:
“The northern and western regions of Bostan have always been among hard-to-pass regions. In summer, land is soft and armored vehicles cannot easily tread on. In winter, the earth turns into mud and even pedestrians have difficulty to walk on. The only communicating road is one that extends from Chazzabeh Pass to Bostan.”
The Iraqi fourth corps was tasked with occupa-tion of Bostan, which was commanded by Staff Major General Hashem Sabah al-Fakhri. Its headquarters were located in Al-Amareh city of Iraq.
During the Iraqi onslaught, border posts to northwest of Bostan were the first places to raid. The posts included:
1. Soweibleh border post, 15 km northwest of Bostan. It was the first post to be attacked by the Iraqis. During border clashes which started on September 16, 1980, 25 gendarmes and ordinary people withstood the Iraqis, armed with a 106 gun and 80-mm mortars, they managed to stall mod-ern Iraqi tanks. Meanwhile, we inflicted heavy casualties on them. Finally, the Iraqis succeeded to murder, wound or capture gendarmes by taking advantage of their air force as well as armored vehicles seizing their armaments. Sergeant Jahad, one of the gendarmes in the post, recollects:
“We were 25 people and were armed with 60- and 80-mm mortars. Most of us were veterans of many wars and were ageing. However, this time it was different, we fought with hand rifles while the Iraqis had automatic guns. The Iraqi forces were busy building embankments for a while and this smelt war. We observed them from behind sand dunes through binoculars. Even a night, I crawled toward an Iraqi border post along with a local gendarme. When we got there, we saw ma-jor canals, but there were no Iraqi forces. So, why had the canals been dug?
We went back to our post and informed our commander. He, in turn, informed his superiors through wireless. Next day, a group came from Bostan and Susnagerd and looked through bin-oculars. The conclusion was that Iraq intended to attack Iran. We also kept reporting. We noted that if the army did not come to help us, we could do nothing.
At last it was September 16. I told other gen-darmes to evacuate the post and retreat. But the commander and other gendarmes did not agree. During the same day, a group of officials includ-ing governor general of Khuzestan came to our post. Fire gradually increased. Then Iraqi air-planes took off and targeted at our post with their rockets and bombs. Then they fired mortars at our post and their tanks aimed at the building.
I will never forget that day. The sky got dark and the gendarmes were either killed or wounded. They took the governor general out of the war zone through dirt roads and he was almost killed. I took up position behind a sand hill and observed what was going on. Shortly after that, Iraqi troops stormed the border post and took the wounded soldiers along with booty.
I wanted to go back to Bostan, but how? All my friends had been torn to pieces in front of my eyes or were captured. Subconsciously, I ran to-ward the place and shouted at the Iraqis ‘O! Mean people! Come and fight me! I am alone’. I fired at Iraqis and they responded back with mortars.
I had no other choice; I left my things behind and moved on. I wanted to go to Bostan by pass-ing over the hills. I decided to take my gun to defend myself against brutal beasts. I was moving with a broken heart while I was near death due to the intense thirst. It was the night of September 17 and the enemy was pounding everywhere. I was quite familiar with the hills on the way. I passed through them that night like a stranger. I felt ashamed for staying alive. It was 4 o’clock in the morning when I saw a military vehicle. I ran toward and after stopping it, I told the people in the car about myself. There were an officer and several soldiers. They were very impressed so gave me a lift.
Haj Saeed, a resident of Bostan says:
“It was the evening of September 16, 1980, when Mr. Soltani, the martyred governor of Susangerd, arrived in Bostan. He was very con-cerned about the soldiers at the border posts who were left without food and water. The people of Bostan were ready to cooperate. The youth re-quested to be equipped with arms to fight the enemy. Women were busy cooking food. A num-ber of people went to war fronts hunting rifles to help the young defenders of the town including the revolutionary guards. People of our town, Bostan, were deployed to prevent enemy’s pene-tration and conquest of the city. Every able-bodied person with a weapon was ready to defend the town.
On September 27, enough food was cooked for everyone. I rushed toward Soweibleh border post along with a group of armed youths going round sand hills. We got the post. Local forces and peo-ple were defending the town with all their wills…”
2. Safariyeh Border Post: This post is located between Fakkeh and Soweibleh border posts and is 20 km far from Bostan. The post is located in a hard-to-pass, sand-covered region. It joins the town by means of a dirt road, which passes by Soweibleh border post and through Chazzabeh Pass. Tanks and heavy vehicles cannot pass through the hills around the post and even pedes-trians have a lot of difficulty going through. Mohammad Abyat, a resident of Bostan, recalls:
“People of Bostan and nearby villages were in-formed about border developments since Septem-ber 16. People asked officials for more arms and ammunitions. They wanted to defend their town as well. Groups of youths went to the district governor’s office as well as gendarmerie. They said ‘we have managed to defeat the Shah’s re-gime. Today we are determined again to resist the enemy by assisting revolutionary guards and gen-darmes. We will not leave them alone. They should not be responsible for defending us while we are just looking on.
We were unanimous to defend our town. Revolutionary guards as well as armed forces had already taken up positions at Mala’eb and Seyed Abd, on the other side of the Karkheh River and were busy defending the town. The Iraqis were trying to enter Bostan through the sole bridge and put an abrupt end to our resistance.
The youth and others took up positions along the concrete shores of the river. It was September 23, 1980. The enemy was pounding the town with tanks and heavy artillery. We had never seen such delivery. We did not know how to protect our-selves when a mortar went off. It was a difficult battle during which, the people, revolutionary guards and gendarmes inflicted casualties on in-vaders and forced them to retreat. I witnessed how even women of Bostan distributed food among combatants and defenders of their town.”
3. Battle of Chazzabeh Pass: Chazzabeh Pass is among important regions in northwest of Bostan and is 6 km away. There are hard-to-pass sand hills to the north and east of Chazzabeh Pass. It is limited on the south to Hur-al-Azim marsh. The width of Chazzabeh Pass is also lim-ited. The earth is wet and armored vehicles will face many difficulties to pass through this region.
The enemy captured Safariyeh and Soweibleh border posts at September 23, night 1980. At the same time, they commanded the border road, which connected border posts in the northern part of Bostan and were moving toward Chazzabeh Pass. Conquering Chazzabeh Pass meant moving toward Bostan town and conquering it. On Sep-tember 23, 1980, about 100 were ready to defend Chazzabeh Pass. One of the combatants says:
“The number of forces at Chazzabeh Pass did not exceed 100. Young revolutionary guards from Susangerd, Bostan and Hamidiyeh as well as local people were fighting and being martyred. Early morning, we were facing an armored divi-sion as well as a full brigade. Chieftain tanks were firing, but their morale was low. We did not have enough ammunitions and tanks were retreat-ing. It was rumored that commander of the ar-mored brigade had ordered the Iraqi soldiers to retreat.
Habib Sharifi, one of the brave combatants, contacted officials at Bostan and asked for rein-forcement. Sometimes he went back to the city to mobilize more forces. Some people were fighting with M1 and even simple rifles. Despite their absolute superiority, the enemies failed to achieve anything. It was early morning of September 23, when Iraqi airplanes and helicopters raided Bostan and opened fire on the town. Bombard-ment of the town curtailed logistics and we felt that we couldn’t defend the city anymore. Iraqi infantry was moving toward Bostan and they almost cut us off Bostan. We had no other choice but to withdraw. People of Kharbeh and Abu Chalach villages were mournfully witnessing our retreat. Nobody could imagine that Iraq would use such weapons to attack Bostan. Our forces went back to Bostan after forming small groups to help people defend the city.”
After conquering Safariyeh, and Soweibleh border posts as well as Chazzabeh Pass, the Iraqi forces were divided into two parts on September 23, 1980 and set off for Azadegan Plain.
Ibn al-Walid 12th Armored Brigade smashed the resistance of revolutionary guards, army and people and then broke up into two parts and ad-vanced toward Bostan. A part of its forces moved toward Mala’eb and Seyed Abd villages to north-east of Bostan and fought defenders in those two regions. Another part of the 12th Ibn al-Walid Armored Brigade focused on Dabouneh and Abu Chalach nearby village and fired over Bostan from north and west. The residents of these re-gions say:
“We saw armored enemy forces moving to-ward Dabouneh region and Abu Chalach village, about one km west of Bostan. Despite many vic-tories, the enemy avoided hasty measures. They were fearful of local forces. The fire authority of the Iraqis was awesome and bullets did not miss a second to target the city and its innocent people. The municipality, gendarmerie, district gover-nor’s office, education department, the main street, as well as the roads connecting Bostan to Susangerd and Ramim village, were the targets of most bombardments.”
Facing such barbaric massacre, people of Bostan and its villages decided to defend them-selves. Women cheerfully encouraged their men to defend the city. The youth became more and more active. Due to people’s firing at the enemy forces, the Iraqi soldiers, who had advanced as far as the Karkheh River, were forced to retreat. Saut al-Jamahir Radio of Iraq announced a statement early morning on September 23:
“In the Name of God. The army of the leader of the Arab ummah and Al-Qadisiyah is currently demolishing the merits of the Persian enemy. The brave personnel of the Qadisiyah army, which is joining Bostan and Susangerd, will be supported by their Arab brethren to free them from the colo-nialistic yoke of Persian people. God bless you the people of Bostan who will regain your free-dom and independence with the help of Qadisiyah army and push Persians out. So, welcome your brethren, help them and turn your back on Per-sians because they are your enemy and even ours.”
At the same time, the people of Bostan and nearby villages were listening to the statements of Ibn al-Walid brigade’s commanders through FM radio. One of the Baathist commanders said, “They are firing at us from the other side of the river and the bridge nearby…. There are several tanks northeast of the city and resistance is hard. They are firing artillery from inside the city.”
The brigadier said, “Break through forms of resistance. Even if all the people of the town are killed, don’t care. You must take the control of the town as soon as possible. All resistance should be shattered by noon. Focus all your arms on the town; do not let any opportunity for the enemy. Kill them all….”
The people of the town were mobilized to de-fend. Nasrollah Sakhravi, a resident of Bostan and an official of Basij headquarters says:
“They cut and burned the palm trees. They de-capitated women in front of their children. They killed people; children and adult. However, we stood against invasion and tyranny. The people of Bostan and its rural areas did not fear tanks and artillery. They withstood many of them. Some were killed, since we did not believe in humilia-tion. All people ranging from young to the old took part in the battle and we could stop the en-emy, denying full occupation of the town.”
Despite popular resistance, the town was in risk of total collapse. It was September 23 when wealthy people left the town in their cars leaving their homes and belongings back heading for Ahwaz through Bostan-Susangerd road.
The Iraqis attacked Bostan from a different di-rection. They approached Bostan through marshes on boats equipped with automatic ma-chine guns.
From September 23 to 26, defenders including 30 revolutionary guards from Susangerd, revolu-tionary guards from Bostan and a number of revolutionary guards from Hamidiyeh and Ahwaz in addition to six tanks belonging to Sadr Battal-ion, supporting them, engaged with the Iraqis in Mala’eb and Seyed Abd regions towards the northeast of Bostan.
At that time, Ibn al-Walid brigade’s forces tried to install a bridge over the Karkheh River in Abyat village, 4 km east of Bostan, to bypass defenders and surround them. However, due to the resistance put up by an officer from Zabol, who targeted Iraqi tanks, the Iraqi forces were stalled and went back to Bostan to tighten the encirclement of the town in the northern and east-ern parts of the Karkheh River.
Mahmoud Nourani, who was among the de-fenders of Bostan, says:
“It was September 25; we were in Bostan along with revolutionary guards from Susangerd, people of Bostan and Sadeq Ahangaran (vocalist of revolutionary and religious songs). Revolu-tionary guards of Susangerd and Bostan as well as locals had fought bravely against the Iraqi troops on the other side of the river. It was early morning when we heard the pleasant sound of morning prayers call along with Ahangaran’s voice who was saying his prayers. We wanted to go into the mosque for praying, when the enemy started shelling the town. The thick smoke result-ing from exploding shells and burning fuel in the houses went up to the skies and with every explo-sion a group of people were martyred or wounded. I have bitter memories from that hectic day, which wrenches my heart, whenever I re-member.
After prayers, we took up positions at Bostan’s municipality. Suddenly, the house opposite the municipality was hit by an artillery shell. A young woman lived there with her small child. Her husband was at work in Kuwait. When peo-ple left the city, they asked her to go with them, but she refused because she had not formally asked for her husband’s permission and stayed under the enemy fire at Bostan. We went into the house to help them. Several other people from Resistance Headquarters arrived too. There, I saw a gruesome scene. The young woman had spread a piece of cloth to eat a breakfast of cheese and bread with her child. Her two-month child was in her arms. The artillery shell, which had hit their house, had cut her head and blood had been splut-tered over the face and eyes of the small girl who was crying. Unbelievingly, we took the child out of the mother’s embrace and put a blanket on her body.”
When Soltani, the late martyred governor of Dasht-e Azadegan, arrived in Bostan, the Resis-tance Headquarters comprised people from all walks of life. The forces were working with more zest to keep the Iraqi soldiers out. The Iraqi troops had suffered heavy casualties trying to cross the Bostan Bridge and were forced to turn tail. A few moments later, they advanced with more troops who were protected by armored ve-hicles and preceded as far as the middle of the bridge. Once more, the revolutionary guards, with their automatic guns, a 106 mm one and rocket propelled grenades pushed them back.
September 25 seemed to be an endless day. While the Resistance Headquarters called on the people to leave the town, most of them refused and said while their husbands and children were fighting how they could leave the town! Haj Ja-hanbakhsh, the official in charge of logistics at Bostan, recalls:
“The Iraqis were constantly increasing their pressure. I got to a street and could not believe what I saw. Four young devotees had tied their feet with kerchiefs and were firing at the Iraqis. I told them that this was a risk and asked them to untie their feet so as to fight the enemy who was surrounding us from all sides. They did not pay any attention to me. I cried again but they said, ‘we have nothing to do with you. Leave us alone’. I entered another street to see if the people need anything. Several minutes later, I went back to that street to see what those four youth were do-ing. They had all been martyred.”
Haj Naser Rabie’h says:
“It was late at the fourth night. The enemy had occupied almost the western part of town. We feared that they would apply heavy arms to kill all. Defenders killed most Iraqi troops who had penetrated the town until 4:00 o’clock in the morning and made the rest flee.”
It was September 26, hard day for the combat-ants in the city. After having fought the Baathist enemy since September 16, they were faced with a difficult choice; either to choose group death and heavy casualties or follow the war tactics and change their positions. Although both options were difficult because if they chose to leave the town, the people would have been defenseless in the face of the invading Iraqis and they could be massacred due to having assisted the combatants.
Consultations began at the same time that the town was being pounded by the enemy. The town defenders were discussing the best way to con-tinue the fight. The army had already retreated and the enemy had taken more forces to the town. Haj Gholam Abbas Jahanbakhsh says:
“Enemy forces were attacking us from north, west, and south of Bostan. Our sole retreat was to the east. When the enemy faced our resistance, they were determined to build a bridge on the east side of the town. We concluded that if we stayed at the town, we would not be supplied with am-munitions. We had no problem with food because the local people had provided enough. Finally, we decided to retreat…”

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Haj Naser Rabie’h continues:
“We made the final decision to retreat. Hear-ing the bad news, people were sad. Some be-lieved the combatants should stay in the town and everybody would fight along with them. Some others noted that they did not want to see the combatants being killed by the Iraqis and recom-mended them to do whatever was more exigent.”
Hamid Chaldavi, whose mother is a resistance epic in Bostan, says:
“Since most Iranian forces were either mar-tyred or wounded and ammunitions were in short, we withdrew from the town. The enemy entered the city from the north, south and west. Most houses were on fire and people were expecting more catastrophes. The Iraqis did not dare to en-ter the town for many hours. Finally, they sent in a number of their officers and forces of Al-Jaish al-Sha'bi. They pulled down pictures of Imam Khomeini at police headquarters and put up Sad-dam’s picture. They even pulled down Iran’s flag and hoisted Iraq’s. At the same time, Saut-ol-Jamahir and Baghdad radios were airing military anthems and declaring the fall of Bostan. Their communiqués were accompanied with some slo-gans. We could see and hear all that was happen-ing because we were not more than 5 km away from Bostan.”
The Iraqis, who were filled with the joy of vic-tory, plundered everything. On September 27, there were sporadic clashes at Abyat village, 4 km east of Bostan; Dafar village, 4.5 km east of Bostan; as well as Saableh village and people suffered casualties on their lives and properties. The Iraqis continued to advance toward Susangerd. Residents of villages located along Bostan-Susangerd road recall:
“The Baathist Iraqi army shelled all the vil-lages along its path. On September 27-28, for the first time, a group of cyclists affiliated Al-Jaish al- Sha'bi entered Abuzar neighborhood of Susangerd and encouraged people to leave their homes. On those days, just 36 guards were de-fending the town.”
On September 28 evening, it was the local and revolutionary guard’s turn in Susangerd to ex-perience the bitterest day of their lives. The Iraqi forces, who had stationed their artillery in Hufel and Allah-o-Akbar hills, shelled the town non stop. Their mortars even pounded residential ar-eas. Heavy bombardment and deadly attacks made people leave their homes and go into the wilderness. Finally, the city fell to the Iraqis.
Some 36 revolutionary guards who defended the town along with the local were either mar-tyred or wounded. Only 15 of them were still alive and they were forced to retreat on Septem-ber 28 evening to hide.
The Iraqis were advancing toward Hamidiyeh and Ahwaz. It was on October 2 when the com-batants heard the historical message of Imam Khomeini who asked, “Are Ahwazi youths all dead?” After that they attacked the Iraqis en masse. Imaging that a full division has attacked them, the Iraqis withdrew from the town.
Seyed Mehdi Mahdavi, the son of an employee at Susangerd governorate says:
“It was October 1 when the defeated Iraqi troops were trying to go through Susangerd in groups of ten or five. They were fleeing. observ-ing this, people approached the town’s exits and chased them with sticks and clubs. The Iraqi sol-diers had lost the way and could not do anything due to extreme thirst and hunger. Many of them were killed by the local and their bodies wee left on land. Some were taken into captivity by com-mon people. An instance was the captivity of a number of Iraqi troops by Mrs. Majideh Negravi. While carrying a big club in her hand, she barred six Iraqis and forced them into her guestroom. There, she took their guns away and locked the doors. Then she had them all arrested with the help of others and while still carrying her club, took them to the grand mosque.
Many people were encouraging her and a big mob was following her, chanting slogans. I ac-companied them as far as the mosque.”
Following the liberation of Susangerd, thou-sands of people and combatants moved toward Bostan and Bostan was also liberated by the peo-ple’s assistance. The Iraqi troops had no other choice but to escape toward Umm Al-Sha’fa’ Island where they fled to the other side of the border. Finally, Bostan was totally free by 4:00 of October 1 evening.
From September 2 to 6, there were no clashes in border areas, towns and villages. People went back to Susangerd and Bostan from remote areas.
Haj Abdulkazem Mohseni-zadeh, a resident of Bostan, says:
“After occupation of the town on September 26, we went to Saryyeh and lived together with thousands of refugees from Susangerd. When Iraq was defeated on September 1, we went back to Bostan. I had two big shops in the town and was among Bostan’s merchants. The Iraqis had ripped my shops open and stole whatever goods they found there. The result of my ten-year business was lost. Even my personal belongings were gone.
I went home with sadness weighing on my heart. The town was in ruins. Whenever I looked at alleys and houses, I didn’t see any sign of civi-lization. It seemed that the town had been demol-ished dozens of years ago. I had been living in Bostan for 45 years. I loved the town with its palms, rivers and kind people. However, I was now walking in the town as a stranger. I could not find any of my friends. None of my neighbors apart from a few old men were alive. My heart was wrenched. I wanted to wail over the ruins of the town. Then I remembered the Almighty God and said to myself now that the enemy has fled the town, we will build it anew…”
Haj Nasser Rabie’h says:
“The enemy had been active in various fronts of Dasht-e Azadegan region since October 6 eve-ning. They were reinforcing their armored forces. Rumors had it that the Iraqis were planning to progress along Soweibleh-Bostan road and had sent in their 10th mechanized division from Bagh-dad to that region. In case of their attack, Bostan was sure to fall because we had no military in the border areas. In Bostan, in addition to people and local forces, thousands of Basiji combatants from Tehran, Behbahan, Ahwaz and other regions of Iran were ready although their light weapons were not efficient.”
On October 9, the gendarmerie reported that the enemy has been shelling Bostan since after-noon. The 92nd Armored Division of Khuzestan reported that, “Bostan is under attack and the Iraqis are trying to advance again along Bostan-Susangerd road en route to Ahwaz.”
Until October 9, the town was being pounded heavily. However, the Iraqi forces did not cross the international border at Safariyeh and Soweibleh border posts. On October 12, and after several days of temporary lull in the war fronts, the Iraqis moved again to conquer Bostan with two armored brigades. During the same day, revolutionary guards in Khuzestan reported:
“Enemy forces that have crossed the border at Soweibleh have about 50 tanks and 40 vehicles along Bostan-Susangerd road. The column, which had partly retreated yesterday afternoon due to the artillery fire, started advancing since early morning and went past Feniji village to take up positions about 8 km from sand hills. During last night’s surprise attack, our brethren in the revolu-tionary guards had destroyed several enemy vehi-cles. Due to heavy artillery fire by the enemy over Bostan along the way, the last residents of the town left for Susangerd on foot.”
To shatter the resistance of the people and armed forces, the enemy brought in its green be-rets as well as forces of al-Jaish Al-Sha'bi through Saeediyeh River and they raided Bostan from south and west.