Decommissioned USN ship sunk IRIN vessel during Iran-Iraq War

USS Simpson (FFG-56) Oilver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigate

Decommission ceremony photo: Bruce Lipsky/The Florida Times-Union

According to Florida Times-Union:

The United States Navy decommissioned its last Perry-class frigate, reducing the Navy's number of ships that have sunk an enemy vessel to just one. The end of the Navy's frigates marks a new era of naval warfare where ships are less likely to go to battle in the open sea.

The USS Simpson removed its weapons, covered its windows, and on Sept. 29, it lowered its flags. Now, the ship will travel to Philadelphia until a foreign nation buys it.

After 30 years of service — including an April 1988 battle when it fired missiles at and sunk an Iranian oil platform and an Iranian Navy vessel — the ship's service came to an end on Sept. 29 with a ceremony at Mayport Naval Station.

Now the only Navy ship that has sunk an enemy is the USS Constitution, which did so during the War of 1812.

COMMENTARY: IRINS Joshan ("Shield") Kaman class (Combattante II type) patrol missile boat was sunk during Operation Preying Mantis involving actions of USS Simpson.

Operation Praying Mantis effectively knocked out Iran Navy's ability to provide convoy escort for its merchant shipping, rendering vulnerable Iran's means of continuing the conflict with declared war aim of removing Saddam Hussein from power.

More than a decade after the Iran-Iraq War, Iranian shipbuilders built a Combattante II based Sina class patrol missile boat, bestowing the name Joshan on the newly commissioned vessel. Joshan'​s launch on 22SEP06 was timed to coincide with Sacred Defense Week and took place at Noshahr’s Imam Khomeini Marine Sciences University..

This vessel currently serves at the Caspian Sea with IRIN 4th Naval Region, headquartered at Bandar Anzali.

IRIN Sina class (Combattante II type) patrol missile boats (PGGF)

Photo: Michail Varlashin at astra-novosti.ru 

Detail of Iranian-built Sina class patrol missile boat on 04JUL13, departing Astrakhan, Russia

Memorial at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran for Iran Navy sailors who lost their lives during USN Operation Praying Mantis.

Ceremony remembering military commanders lost in 1981 air tragedy

Above: banner showing image of IRIAF Major General Javad Fakoori

Iran's military on 29SEP15 remembered it's fallen commanders lost in an air crash thirty-four years ago to the day, during the Iran-Iraq War.

On 29SEP81, IRIAF Lockheed C-130H Hercules, serial 5-8552 en route from Ahvaz to Mehrabad crashed near Kahrizak, 20 kilometers south of Tehran, killing 80 on board including wounded from the front and the following Iranian top ranking military commanders:

- IRIA Major General Valiollah Fallahi, commander joint chief of staff

- IRIAF Major General Javad Fakouri, IRIAF commander and deputy commander joint chief of staff
(IRIAF Tactical Fighter Base 2 at Tabriz is named "Shahid Fakhouri" in his honor)

- IRIA Brigadier General Seyed Mousa Namjoo, minister of defense

- IRGC Brigadier General Yousef Kolahdouz, acting IRGC commander

- IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jahanara
(Hero during the Abadan siege and combat commander during Battles of Khoramshahr)

IRIAF Brigadier General 2C Hossein Khalili speaking at the commemoration ceremony

Seated in the audience, far right: IRIAF Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Alireza Barkhour

IRIAF Brigadier General 2C Farajollah Baratpour. An IRIAF F-4 Phantom pilot, Baratpour flew combat in the celebrated H-3 airstrike during the Iran-Iraq War.

Brig. Gen. Alireza Barkhour distributes honor plaques to family members of military commanders lost in the 1981 air tragedy.

  

Group of IRIAF colonels seated at the commemoration ceremony

IRGC brigadier general 2C breaks ground onsite of planned monument for those military servicemen lost in the 1981 air tragedy.

Photos: Mahdi Shamohammadi at Tasnim News Agency

Another way to assess Iran's support of Assad

by Paul Iddon

Many detractors of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter lambaste him for leaving a former ally of the United States, the last Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, fly around the world in exile without a country in which to take refuge. As Ronald Reagan put it during the 1980 presidential campaign, the Shah was a “stalwart ally” of the United States in that region and did its “bidding” there. Not assisting him or giving him refuge when he went into exile Reagan believed was “a blot” on America's record.

When the Shah died in 1981 former U.S. President Richard Nixon, a friend of the Shah, attended his funeral in Cairo wherein he called the Shah's treatment by the U.S. in exile as “shameful”, since it had “turned its back on one of its friends.” He too believed it had been a mistake not to assist that former American ally. After all, the Shah was an autocrat who he had helped elevate to be become a major regional power during his presidency as part of his administration's Nixon Doctrine.

Both these now deceased former American presidents voiced their view that even after the Shah had fallen the U.S. should not of snubbed him after he having had, in Reagan's words, “carried our load” for so long in the region they believed it was only right that they stand by their friend and ally until the end.

I'm often reminded of that episode of history when I see the lengths to which the current regime in Iran is going to prop-up the regime in Syria of President Bashar al-Assad. Yes, Assad is a strategically important ally and his fall would undermine Iran's strategic interests in the region vis-a-vis Hezbollah in Lebanon. But at the same time there is a much more personal component to the support Damascus has been receiving from Tehran given the fact that it was the Assad regime in Syria which had given decisive assistance to Iran during its brutal eight-year war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The fostering of the Tehran-Damascus alliance came at a time when the help Iran got from the outside world during that war was extremely limited. Even after Iraq began to use chemical weapons on the battlefield. Many in the Iranian regimes Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) paramilitary still remember the help Syria gave them at a crucial and critical time for them shortly after their inception and see their support of the Assad regime today as one way to repay that support. Which is one reason why IRGC forces are also being sent to Syria to ensure Damascus and the remaining parts of the country Assad still retains remain under his control -- and possibly even to help him undertake an offensive aimed at retaking Idlib Province.

As the Shah had held the fort for Washington for so long in the Persian Gulf region so too did Assad for Iran in the Levant. And many in the establishment in Iran feel that another reason Assad should be supported when his rule is being directly threatened.

The comparison is obviously highly imperfect in many respects. After all, there have been weeks in Syria in the last four years whereby the Assad regime killed and tortured to death more people than the last Shah did during the entirety of his lengthy 38-year reign. Additionally, the last Shah did not authorize the bombing of his own country's cities like Assad did. And while the primary reason Tehran has sacrificed blood and treasure in keeping Assad in power is indeed strategic there is also that more personal component to this support which shouldn't be readily forgotten. Assad may well be a mass-murdering bastard, but it's worth remembering that from Tehran's point-of-view he is – as was Somoza to Washington once-upon-a-time – their bastard. 

A ‘support our troops’ effect in Tehran, Iran

Commentary on Iran media imagery depicting the 16JUN15 ceremony in Tehran honoring the return of 270 victims of the Iran-Iraq War, including 170 combat divers buried alive by Saddam Hussein's Baath-Iraqi troops during Operation Karbala-4.

Massive turnout at Baharestan Square in downtown Tehran, paying respect to returned remains of Iranian soldiers and combat divers, the latter executed by live-burial by Baath-Iraqi troops.

The account of the divers appears to resonate with a cross-spectrum of Iranian society, given the cruelty of Baath regime during the Iran-Iraq War and the current cruelty witnessed in the region at the hands of ISIL.

This turnout also serves to further validate what observers inside and outside of Iran have described as a now prevailing, popular support for Iranian military assistance provided to Syria and Iraq. This support is now being expressed openly by Reformists (see HERE).

To put this American terms, the "Support our Troops" movement so prevailing since 9/11 may be instructive in understanding such a sociopolitical shift, especially when compared to the American era of the latter Vietnam War and its aftermath.

Conservative elements of society carrying coffins of fallen soldiers and combat divers from the Iran-Iraq War

Liberally dressed elements of society (likely from northern Tehran) paying respects to returned remains of Iranian fallen from the Iran-Iraq War, indicative of a reported, shifting attitude toward Iran's military commitments in the region

In addition to the Basij organization, of which members are seen beside flag-draped coffins of returning war dead, the liberal House of Cinema also issued statements of support for sacrifices made during what Iran's term "The Imposed War."

Such a large, united response prompted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to characterize the event as “one of the most memorable events of the revolution.”

Conservatively dressed elements of society (likely from southern Tehran) paying respects to returned remains of Iranian fallen from the Iran-Iraq War.

Solemn-appearing IRGC lieutenant colonel serving as pallbearer

Emotional turnout for returned remains of fallen soldiers and combat divers from the Iran-Iraq War

Further evidence of emotions on display, for returned remains of fallen soldiers and combat divers from the Iran-Iraq War.

Evidence of emotional Iranian youths of about the same age as the combat divers, fallen during a past period of national emergency.

Imagery of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeni among hands touching coffins containing returned remains of fallen soldiers and combat divers from the Iran-Iraq War.

Photo of the young Iranian military combat engineers, just prior to deployment during Operation Karbala-4

Exhumed remains of young combat diver, hands bound, buried alive by Baath-Iraqi troops during the Iran-Iraq War

Recovered water-proofed imagery of founder of the Islamic Republic worn into battle by combat diver during Operation Karbala-4.

IRGC Brig. Gen. Seyed Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of Committee for the Search for the Missing, beside remains of combat diver executed by live-burial by Baath-Iraqi troops during the Iran-Iraq War.

Iran's political and military leadership has taken the occasion to promote the assigning of blame for the failure of Operation Karbala-4 on American support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War.

Photos: Islamic Republic News Agency

Iran Unveils Memorial Honoring Jewish Heroes

Authorities in Tehran have unveiled a monument to slain Jewish-Iranian soldiers who lost their lives during the Iran-Iraq war between 1980 and 1988. A public ceremony marked the memorial’s opening on Monday. Banners showed the images of fallen soldiers, hailed as martyrs in Farsi and Hebrew inscriptions.

Photo credit: Memorial to fallen Jewish-Iranian soldiers during Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88 (IRNA/The Washington Post)

Sacred Defense Museum in Isfahan, under construction

For Sacred Defense Week being held in Iran, Isfahan's municipal web site publicized its museum being built to commemorate the Iran-Iraq War. [see HERE]

Interior detail including view of museum's gallery sections

Aluvista aluminium tension fabric systems seen applied, nearing completion

Hallway section in a state of nearing completion

Interior detail with windows, column supports and paneled ceiling, nearing completion

Photos: isfahancity.blogfa.com

34th Anniversary of Iran-Iraq War

Iranian Navy troops marching during the annual military parade in Tehran during the Sacred Defense Week, marking the 34th anniversary of Iraqi invasion of Iran; 22 September 2014.
(Photo: Behrouz Mehri/AFP)

IRGC-QF Maj. Gen Soleimani, as young commander during Iran-Iraq War

By Mark Pyruz

Rarely seen publicity photographs of IRGC-QF Commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani during his time as a young  IRGC commander in the Iran-Iraq War. Photos were posted on an Iranian history and  research blog, then reposted at Mashregh News (additional pics can be found at these two sites). Final photo in this set is Soleimani as he appears today.

Qasem Soleimani in his mid-20s: a young IRGC commander during the Iran-Iraq War

Soleimani aboard Iranian-assembled CJ-5 1/4 ton "Jeep Shahbaz" during Iran-Iraq War

Soleimani engaged in battlefield communication using what appear to be AN/PRC-77 Portable Transceivers

Soleimani aboard Iranian-assembled variant of Jeep Wagoneer 3/4 ton 4x4 used as command car

Soleimani, among a group of young Iranian volunteers showing signs of recent combat experience

Soleimani among IRGC guardsmen, appearing somewhere in the Hawr Al-Azim (“Hawizeh”) marshes

Soleimani among IRGC guardsmen, aboard watercraft somewhere on or near Arvand Rud (“Shatt al-Arab”)

Llikely depiction of Soleimani as commander of IRGC 41st Tharallah Division during Iran-Iraq War

Qasem Soleimani in 2014: a 57-year-old major general and commander of IRGC-QF

Farzan Sabet’s ‘Military Intervention, Iranian Style’

 

Above: video still of purported IRGC special forces in Syria

Available at the “War on the Rocks” blog is a well thought out piece on Iranian military thinking, entitled "Military Intervention, Iranian Style." Below are highlights:

Two decisive military experiences in the 1980s have helped shape Iran’s approach to military intervention and its very strong preference for covert operations. The first is the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), which is arguably the defining experience of the Islamic Republic, on par with the revolution itself. While Iran’s conventional military achieved its primary objective of not conceding an inch of Iranian soil to Iraq using overt operations, it was far less successful in projecting power into Iraq, and the stalemated war ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of casualties and hundreds of billions of dollars. Critically, Iran learned the limits of its conventional military power, constrained by technological and industrial shortcomings and international balance-of-power dynamics.

The second experience was attempts by the Movements Branch, the predecessor of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Jerusalem (Qods) Force, to create resistance movements across the Middle East, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early 1980s, and helped shape an evolving template which has been used widely elsewhere since. This second experience has left a greater imprint on Iranian military interventions due to its relative military success, cost-effectiveness, and deniability.

COMMENTARY: This accurate assessment is instructive, given Iran’s large ground force mobilization and subsequent restraint during the crisis on its eastern border in 1998, and the current crisis in Iraq where reports indicate Iran has massed a large conventional military ground force of ten divisions on its western border.

With this background in mind, what is Iran’s approach to military interventions? It typically follows three basic principles.

1. Leave a light footprint

2. Partner with indigenous forces and use unconventional warfare

3. Create broad non-sectarian coalitions

COMMENTARY: Sabet elaborates on each of these three identified principles.  Readers are encouraged to read his piece in full, by clicking HERE.

Note: Farzan Sabet is a doctoral candidate in international history at the Graduate Institute, Geneva.

Dehnamaki: Recasting Iran-Iraq War

A New Movie About an Old War

Christian Science Monitor’s Scott Peterson writes from Tehran that a new movie about the Iran-Iraq war, “The Ascendants,” by Iran’s film director and a former leader of hardline Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante group Massoud Dehnamaki, has broken box office records, grossing $1.5 million since late March. What makes the movie intriguing is its nuanced view of the war in which Dehnamaki fought.

The Ascendants’ simple but penetrating story is about a father who tries to prevent his son, a top student, from volunteering for the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s and from almost certain death. The story counters three decades of official narrative of the war as “sacred defense.”

To read Peterson’s review of the film, please click here

Photo credit: Iranian filmmaker Massoud Dehnamaki, with a poster of his 2007 movie, Ekhrajiha, in the background. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

IRGC military funeral for unknown soldiers of Iran-Iraq War

Delivery of remains of Iranian unknown soldiers to Ardebil aboard chartered Iran Air McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (DC-9-82)

IRGC honor guard for three unknown soldiers of the Iran-Iraq War. Guardsmen AK-type assault rifles presented with fixed bayonets.

IRGC funeral procession from Ardebil Airport (ADU / OITL)

Red Crescent vehicles serving as hearses for remains of unknown soldiers of Iran-Iraq War

IRGC colonel from Hazrat-e Abbas Corps accepting remains of unknown soldiers

Remains of three unknown soldeirs of the Iran-Iraq War, placed in honor

Photos: Mehr News Agency