SAEDNEWS: Saddam, the ousted dictator of Iraq, had given recommendations to his commanders and companions in case he was captured by Iranian forces, which you will read in this report.
According to the Politics Service of Saed News analytical news outlet, quoting the Center for Sacred Defense Documents and Research, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Revolution, made a reference to Operation Fath al-Mobin during a meeting with officials and state managers. He said: Saddam, at the beginning of the war near Ilam, gave an interview and then said his next interview would be in Tehran. But you saw what fate befell him during and after the war.
He added: In Fath al-Mobin, Saddam was lucky. He was about to be captured by IRGC fighters. If they had arrived half an hour earlier, he would have been captured, but he was lucky and escaped.
In Operation Fath al-Mobin, in the Nasr Headquarters axis, the operating units clashed with the enemy at 1:30 a.m. While Iraqi Army units in this axis fiercely resisted, the combatants of Habib Battalion from the 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Brigade (PBUH), who were tasked with seizing Ali Garehzad and silencing the artillery stationed there, advanced deep into enemy territory and captured the artillery command post and the tactical headquarters of the Iraqi 4th Army Corps. At the same time, Saddam and a number of senior Ba’ath Army commanders, who did not expect such an advance by the Islamic fighters, had come to the rear of their units when they suddenly encountered the sweeping and enemy-crushing attack of the soldiers of Islam. According to the Supreme Leader, they were lucky and managed to escape capture and disaster at the hands of the IRGC forces.
On this matter, the most important documents are the repeated and documented accounts of senior Ba’ath Army commanders, especially those who accompanied Saddam, which have been published in both foreign and domestic works. The Center for Sacred Defense Documents and Research has mentioned the most important of these accounts:
General Hussein Kamel Majid, the former Minister of Industry and Military Industries of the Ba’ath regime and Saddam’s deceased son-in-law, after fleeing to Jordan in the winter of 1995, admitted in a detailed interview with Al-Safir magazine, published in Beirut: During the Shush–Dezful Operation (Fath al-Mobin), when Iranian forces advanced into the area of Iraq’s 4th Corps, the support units of this combat corps were destroyed, and it was almost certain that Saddam and his companions, of whom I was one, would be captured by Iranian forces. In those moments, Saddam turned pale and was very worried. Saddam looked at us and said: I ask you, if we are captured, kill me and yourselves. (Babaei and Behzad, 2017: 346–347)
Major General Abd al-Hamid Mahmoud al-Khattab, Chief of the Presidential Office of Iraq and one of Saddam’s permanent companion during the war with Iran, said: The President, anxious, asked Adnan Khairallah: Adnan, tell me what we should do? Adnan Khairallah replied: My lord, I will find another place to flee and hide. Again, the President asked: Do you also have weapons and ammunition with you? I replied: We only have one rifle. He angrily said: If the Iranians find me, do you know what will happen?! Everyone with him tried to calm the President. While looking at our tanks burning in flames, he repeatedly muttered under his breath: Damn them! They trapped us in the pit of war. He did not mention anyone by name; he only cursed, but I knew he meant America and the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. That day, for a few hours we were besieged, but suddenly we found a vehicle carrying wounded soldiers. We pulled the wounded out and got in ourselves. When the President sat in his place, he said: ‘The wounded will be treated; but if we are captured by the Iranians, what should we do?’ (Babaei and Behzad, 2017: 347–348)
