Tens of Thousands of Iranians Pay Tribute to 175 Martyred Divers

on June 17, 2021 | 5:11:41

A huge crowd of Iranian people, on Tuesday, held a dramatic funeral for 175 divers who had been buried alive during Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Streets of downtown Tehran, around Baharestan square, swarmed with tens of thousands of Iranians paying tribute to the martyrs.

The divers, found in areas at the Iran-Iraq border in the river Arvand a few weeks ago, had been martyred during Operation Karbala-4.

They had been killed by Iraqi forces during the operation in December 1986. With the hands and feet shackled, they had been choked to death.

Former commander of the IRGC and the present secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezayee who commanded the operation at the time, delivered a speech during the funeral.

Rezayee said that the martyrs’ return has given a new vibe of sternness and resistance to society.

Brigadier General Mohammad Bagherzadeh, the commander of the Missing in Action Search Committee of the Iranian Armed Forces, had stated upon the martyrs’ arrival in the country that some of the retrieved bodies bore no scars, indicating that the divers might have been buried alive.

Once the news of the homecoming of the martyrs broke in the news in Iran, millions of people mourned for the fighters on social networks.

In twitter and Facebook, the Iranians invited fellows to join the online mourners and remember the martyred divers.

The operation, Karbala-4, set the stage for Operation Karbala 5 in 1987, which became the largest battle of the war, with both sides losing hundreds of soldiers.