Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – February 9, 1986

After two or three days of boredom, today I feel healthy. I am supposed to go to the south for the operation after sunset. This attack could be decisive; both in war and in politics and in economy and especially the price of oil. A lot of facilities have been prepared for this attack, a lot of money has been spent and a lot of forces have been deployed.

Almost six divisions of the army's ground forces and all the artillery facilities and all the Air Force and all the facilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the huge popular forces - the people of Karbala - with relatively good training and a large number of planes and anti-aircraft guns and Hag and Rapiro missiles, a part of the naval force and a lot of ammunition and a lot of combat engineering work. So far, we have not used this amount of force and facilities for any attack. In addition to the unprecedented engineering works that have been done in the region in a few months.

I am also in charge of the war command, and I have employed a strong headquarters for the central headquarters of Khatam al-Anbia, which has all the facilities of war. Of course, the enemy is also very prepared. However, the result is in God's hands and we submit to God's will and do our duty. "Wa ma al-nasr al-lamin and al-Allah wa maramit ezramit wa lakan Allah Rami" If I get martyrdom and I don't return, the will I wrote two years ago when I went to the front for the Khyber operation is valid and I don't want to change it.

Mr. [Vaez] Tabasi greeted them by phone and insisted on traveling to Mashhad. The time was not determined. From 4:30 to 5:30, I conducted press and radio interviews with domestic and foreign journalists in the parliament.

I went to the airport and left for Ahvaz at half past six. it is raining We sat down at Ahvaz airport with problems. I wore a military uniform on the plane. I went to the campsite in Ahvaz Golf. It is the center of the army. They have prepared a safe place. The preparations for the attack have been made, and at ten o'clock at night, the attack on the enemy will begin from three camps: two camps of the IRGC and one of the army. We had a ceremony that was filmed and I ordered the attack.

We stayed awake for two hours. The initial reports indicated that the enemy's defensive lines were broken in all axes and that the enemy was completely surprised. I slept and told them to wake me up if needed. I woke up at three in the morning. I was informed. It turned out that the navy and the IRGC could not reach the al-Bakr and Walamieh docks, which were among the targets, due to the turbulence of the sea. Yasser has come to the front with me.