Welcome to another episode of this series. The second year of the imposed war began with a shift in strategy to fight the invaders and consolidate national unity and solidarity.

Dismissal of Bani Sadr from the status of commander-in-chief of the armed forces was a major development in the war. The warfare approach, military strategy, battlefield commandment, acting structure, planning, and tactics changed, and classic warfare was combined with revolutionary warfare. An important feature of these changes was the broad presence of voluntary youths of every social stratum in fighting the Baathist invading army. The IRGC was responsible for military training and organization of these popular forces. In the new situation, the IRGC's combat structure grew and the independent battalions were promoted to the capacity of the brigade level to recruit popular forces.

In the first half of the second year, the number of Basiji forces increased from 2,500 in Samen al-A’imma operation to 60,000 in Bayt ul-Moqaddas operation. The success of Samen al-A’imma operation showed that design and implementation of broad operations with a new strategy is feasible. In this operation Saddam’s army suffered a heavy defeat. Only 150 Iranian combatants were martyred, half of whom were the youths of Basij and IRGC. In addition to the heavy destruction of Saddam's military equipment, 1,500 to 2,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 1,800 were captured. Two months after the successful operation of Samen al-A’imma, Tariq al-Quds operation was launched for liberating the city of Bostan and the adjacent villages.

Tariq al-Quds operation was the first operation of the Islamic Republic, in which popular forces were fully organized and trained. Indeed, this operation was an attempt to achieve a mechanism of combining classical skills with guerrilla and popular warfare. Tariq al-Quds operation has had several important features, one of which was the increase in the size of the operation area. The second feature of this operation was the expansion of operation objectives as compared to Samen al-A’imma operation. Reaching international borders, cutting off the northern part of enemy forces from the southern part, liberating the border town of Bostan, destroying the enemy's forces and equipment, and cleansing the areas were among the objectives of Tariq al-Quds which were fully realized. Increasing the capacity of popular forces can be considered the third important achievement of Tariq al- Quds operation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in particular, expanded its combat structure after increasing popular forces. One of the IRGC commanders called the expansion of the IRGC combat structure a result of change in the situation and the climate for activity, saying: "We were able to properly revise and organize our forces and bring into the scene a large part of the popular forces that were an effective factor in the operation to gain valuable experiences."

 In other words, Tariq al-Quds operation was a manifestation of the presence of popular forces in the battlefields which resulted after cleansing of battlefronts from treacherous and corrupt elements. In terms of war tactic, Tariq al-Quds operation had a distinct feature, namely passing through sands.

The scheme to pass through the sands from the northern axis of operation was the outcome of the increase of popular forces in the war and led to the enemy's defeat. The plan was unexpected by the enemy to the extent that the Iraqi captives would claim that Iranian forces acted on the axis through heliborne because a sandy area is naturally impassable while the Iranian brave youth did not use any helicopter to achieve their goals.

Efraim Karsh, Israeli-British historian, while emphasizing the formation of a new Iranian tactic in the publication of the Adelphi Papers Print of the spring of 1987, writes: "Tariq al-Quds operation had important results. With the vast efforts of Iranians in the war, the power of operation planning and command and control skills increased to a large extent. In fact, this operation indicated Iranians' competence at scheming and carrying out various military operations on a large scale. Secondly, Bostan counter-attack enabled Iran to test successfully, for the first time, the man wave which later became the tactic of the warfronts." By man wave this expert means wide presence of Iranian people from various walks of life in the battlefields. In Tariq al-Quds operation, besides liberation of 800 square kilometers of Iranian lands, 180 tanks and personnel carriers, 200 vehicles, 13 aircrafts and four choppers were destroyed. Totally, 45 battalions and companies of 12 brigades and commando forces of the 5^th mechanized division were annihilated and the number of the injured was over 3,500. The IRGC and the army took booties including 100 tanks, 150 bulldozers and engineering machines, 19 howitzers of 152mm caliber, 70 personnel-carriers, 70 anti-aircraft guns, a large amount of weapons and ammunition and 250 vehicles.

The victory in Tariq al-Quds operation was attained through the bravery and self-sacrifice of Iranian youths. As the cities of Khorramshahr and Huweizeh fell, defenders stood until the last bullet and drop of blood. During the liberation of the occupied lands, Iranian forces risked their life and limb wherever necessary. There are many memories of this in the books of the sacred defence era.

Mohammad Mehdi Shafazand, a Basiji from the city of Kerman, relates, "Behind the minefield and the barbed wires I could hear a whisper in the dark. As I went close, I saw some of the forces from Ahwaz talking to the forces of Kerman. Apparently, there was no possibility of opening a path through the minefield. If the Iraqis saw us they would kill all of us instantly. The Ahwazis intended to go on the minefield to open a path for crossing of the battalion. Combatants like Mahdi Hojjat and others insisted on treading the minefield. Suddenly, the cry of Ya Hussein was heard following the sound of a blast. The youths of Ahwaz had bravely trodden on the mines and the path was open. Finally, we were commanded to move. We passed through barbed wires and went on quickly."

These scenes would frequently occur during the sacred defense. They are among the most beautiful epic chapters of the Iranian youths in defense of the Islamic Revolution and their homeland.

RM/SS