Heroes of the 8-year Holy Defense (7)

Welcome to the 7th part of our special series on the occasion of the Holy Defence Week marking start of the 8 year war imposed in 1980 by the US through its agent Saddam of the tyrannical Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad in a bid to overthrow the newly established Islamic Republic.

This nefarious plot, however, was foiled by the astute leadership of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him), who instilled in the Iranians the spirit of jihad and sacrifice to emerge victorious.

The first edition of Heroes of the 8-year Holy Defence, focused on achievements of the martyred defence minister, Mostafa Chamran.

The second edition featured the exploits of two teenaged students, Behnam Mohammadi of Khorramshahr, and Mohammad Hussain Fahmideh of Karaj against the might of the Ba’thist war machine.

In the 3^rd edition, we presented you glimpses of the heroism of Ahmad Motavasselian, who after service against anti-revolutionaries in Kurdistan and participation in the liberation of the port city of Khorramshahr, was kidnapped in Beirut by the Phalangist terrorist militia, while on a diplomatic mission to Lebanon, and handed over to the illegal Zionist entity, along with four other Iranian officials. It is not known whether Motavasselian and colleagues are still languishing in Israeli dungeons or have achieved martyrdom.

In the 4^th edition we highlighted the heroics of Mohammad Borujerdi, whose ethics and appearance earned him the title of Messiah of Kurdistan by its people.

In the fifth edition, we drew attention to the military genius of Hassan Baqeri, and how he achieved immortal martyrdom.

Yesterday in the 6^th edition, we referred to the innovative air operations of helicopter pilot Ali Akbar Shiroodi, who finally attained martyrdom during a combat operation.

Today in the 7^th edition of Heroes of the 8-year Holy Defence we will dwell on the soaring spirit of another pilot, in fact the pilot of a fighter aircraft, Abbas Babbaie, who achieved martyrdom while serving Islam and the Islamic Republic.

As we said in our previous editions, during the 8 years of holy defence, the Islamic Republic of Iran was facing the might of almost the whole world. In addition to the weaponry supplied to Saddam by the Capitalist West and Communist East, the repressive Ba’th minority regime was funded and financed to the tune of scores of billions of dollars by the reactionary Arab regimes, especially the spurious British created entity called Saudi Arabia.

It was thus faith in Islam and the teaching of the Prophet and his Infallible Ahl al-Bayt that inspired Iran’s Muslim combatants to foil the intricate plot of the enemies of humanity. One such intrepid defender of the country was Abbas Babaie, who was born in a religious family in Qazvin in 1950 and after schooling joined the air force.

In the pre-revolution days, Iran was a client state of the US, and American experts and military advisors did not allow Iranians to completely master the skills for maintenance and repair of airplanes. Even the Iranian cadets dispatched to the US for training were not given proper training. Yet in spite of these restrictions, Abbas Babaie who was sent to the US for training devoted himself to the mastering of the technics of operating fighter planes, especially F-14.

A pious man, Babaei during his training years in the US took extra care against being influenced by the decadent western culture. He used to avoid all unclear foods and drinks, and regularly observed his religious rites and rituals. On return to Iran, he became a pilot of Northrop F-5 and trained on the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Grumman F-14 Tomcat. He married his cousin Maliheh, and was based in Khuzestan Province when the Islamic Revolution triumphed. He joined the revolutionaries and vowed to devotedly serve the ideals of the Islamic Republic. When the war started, he enthusiastically carried out whatever operations that were entrusted to him.

Martyr Abbas Babaei was a great man who was raised in the school of martyrdom. He was a fighter whose piety and devotion was a byword. He was a virtuous man whose soul was filled with love, selflessness and generosity; a soldier who was a brave veteran of battlefields, and a great fighter against his own carnal desires. He used to secretly provide financial help to the needy persons, especially colleagues who were from poor families. In 1981, the 31-year old Abbas Babaee, as Head of the Air Base Islamic Society, was made commander of the 8^th air force base. After showing his competence and his commitment while serving as the commander of Isfahan air base, in 1983 he was appointed as the deputy head of air force operation and transferred to Tehran.

Abbas Babaei with over 3000 hours of air flights with different types of jet fighters, spent most of his time in operational flights and war fronts in the west and south of Iran. From 1985 until his martyrdom in 1987, he carried out over 60 war missions with full success. For the speedy progress of operations, he did not limit himself to supervision but he always took part in war missions to become aware of problems and probable risks.

In view of his competence and bravery, he was promoted as Brigadier-General in 1987 a few weeks before his martyrdom. While returning from a mission, Babaee, as hit by an Iraqi air defense system and martyred.

In the morning of Eid Adha, he and his co-pilot took off in a F-5 training plane from the Tabriz airbase and entered Iraq’s airspace. After conducting a successful mission, his plane was hit and he sustained injuries. Although the co-pilot managed to land the aircraft, Babaie achieved martyrdom.

FK/AS/SS