Heroes of the 8-year Holy Defence (8)
Sep 28, 2016 13:52 UTC
Welcome to the 8th and last 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 in order 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 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 3rd 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 4th 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, we drew attention to the military genius of Hassan Baqeri, and how he achieved immortal martyrdom.
In the 6th edition, we referred to the innovative air operations of helicopter pilot Ali Akbar Shiroodi, who finally attained martyrdom during a combat operation.
Yesterday in the 7th edition we dwelt 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.
Today in the 8th and last edition of Heroes of the 8-year Holy Defence, we pay tribute to the services of Martyr Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam, the person who dedicated his life to the advancement of Islamic Republic’s missile defence capabilities, as among the best in the world.
We have paid homage to only a few of the tens of thousands of martyrs whose lifeblood nurtured the tree of the Islamic Republic and defeated the plots of enemies, at a time when even the then president of Iran, Abol-Hassan Bani Sadr was found to be a turncoat, and 9 months after start of the imposed war, was impeached and removed from his post by the Majlis or parliament.
Even in these critical conditions, when the next elected president, Mohammad Ali Rajaie, along with his prime minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar was martyred in a terrorist bomb blast, following the martyrdom two months earlier in a similar terrorist bomb blast, of Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti, along with 72 senior officials including minsters and MPs, the holy defence continued at the war fronts, with more victories for Iran’s Muslim combatants.
In conditions when Iran was denied purchase of weaponry while the Ba’thist war machine had access to the latest in defence technology from both the East and West, Iranian engineers embarked on ambitious projects to make the Islamic Republic self-sufficient in the defence industries. One such genius was Martyr Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam, the brain behind Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
A veteran of the imposed war who had fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the immortal heroes of the holy defence, such as Mahdi Bakeri, Mohammad Ibrahim Hemmat, and others, this IRGC combatant who was in charge of the missile and artillery divisions of Iran during the 8-year war, embarked on innovative methods to upgrade the country’s missile defence system.
Tehrani Moqaddam spent almost 25 years of his life in expanding missile defence capability and earned the title of Father of Iran’s Missile Industries. Through his efforts, Iran gained access, without any aid of any from any country, to the technology of the most advanced types of short and long range surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air and air-to-surface missiles and naval torpedoes.
Today the Islamic Republic of Iran is among the few countries of the world which has the technology of producing and launching various types of missiles in the world. Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam was martyred in an accident, along with some of his colleagues, while inspecting the project for production of ballistic missiles. He lost his life on 12 November 2011 in the Bid Khaneh explosion, at a depot belonging to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution 25 miles west of Tehran.
Born in Tehran in 1959, he played important roles during the imposed war. He was instrumental in establishment of the first indigenous artillery division in 1982. The same year he established the IRGC artillery research centre at Ahvaz, and the next year in October he established the IRGC missile command centre that played a vital role in the bombardment of the Iraqi port city of Basra in January 1984. He also upgraded the long range artillery facilities at the northwestern borders that resulted in the first Iranian rocket attack on Kirkuk in February 1985.
In August 1985, Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam became Missile Commander of the air force units of IRGC, and during the years 1986-87, he helped Lebanon’s legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, to establish its own missile unit for defence against the state terrorism of the illegal Zionist entity. In 1987, he designed “Naze'aat” as the first Iranian long range missile, and in 1988, played one of the leading roles in the defeat of the Iraqi backed MKO hypocrites during Operation Mersad.
Hassani Tehrani Moqaddam’s goal was to develop missiles with an operational range of over 1,000 kilometers. He thus embarked on production of the Shahab-1, and then the Shahab-2 missiles. These were followed by design and production of Zelzal-1, 2 and 3 missiles. In 1998, he succeeded in developing the Shahab-3, which is a medium-range ballistic missile with an operational range of 2,000 kilometers. It was tested between 1998 and 2003 and was added to Iran's military arsenal on 7 July 2003, with an official unveiling by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on 20 July of the same year.
Tehrani Moqaddam later improved the Shahab-3 and developed a new version of this missile called Qadr-110, which has a range of 1,800–2,000 kilometers. In 2008, he developed the first range of Iranian solid-fueled ballistic missiles known as the Sejjil, followed by Ashura and Samen missiles. The Sejjil launch tests on 13 November 2008 displayed an operational range of 2,000–2,400 kilometers. May God shower His choicest mercy on Martyr Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam for making Iran a leading manufacturer of ballistic missiles for the defence of the country!
Last but not the least, we should remember so many other brave and young commanders of the Holy Defence, who are now actively safeguarding the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and world Muslims, especially against the cowardly Takfiri terrorists, such as Qassem Soleimani the commander of IRGC Qods Brigade. According to Syrian and Iraqi officials, if it was not the management skills and war experience of Major-General Qassem Soleimani and his colleagues, Damascus, Baghdad and Arbil would have fallen to the Takfiri terrorist groups.
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