To carry out the operation, Mojahedin operational units brought a large area of northern Tehran under their control. Sayyad Shirazi, butcher of Kurdistan, responsible for purging and executing the military personnel and for the death of hundreds of thousands of teenagers in the unpatriotic war with Iraq and hundreds of Mojahedin and National Liberation Army of Iran combatants was killed as he was being escorted by a group of heavily armed Revolutionary Guards acting as his bodyguards. His crimes in all these areas amounted to specific war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Due to his countless crimes and his complete loyalty to the mullahs, Sayyad Shirazi rapidly rose through the ranks of the military to occupy senior posts to pursue the regime's suppressive and belligerent policies. A summary of his criminal record follows:
1. In 1979, Khomeini appointed Sayyad Shirazi as the "commander for special operations in Iranian Kurdistan". In that position, he played an active role in the suppression of the people in that region. He was responsible for repeated, indiscriminate shelling of many villages and cities in Iranian Kurdistan in 1979 and 1980. On many occasions, Khomeini issued orders directly to Sayyad Shirazi to massacre, pillage and ravage Iranian Kurds . An army captain in 1979, he was promoted to colonel in a short span of time as a reward for his crimes.
2. Sayyad Shirazi was appointed as the commander of the regime's ground forces in 1981. In that post, he purged the regular armed forces of its patriotic personnel, ordering the arrest, execution and dismissal of many of them. He also appointed officers loyal to the clerical regime to key positions to thwart any outpouring of protest and discontent within the military. For this reason, he was among the officers most hated by the military personnel.
3. Sayyad Shirazi was a key official responsible for sending hundreds of thousands of young Iranians to their deaths in the unpatriotic war with Iraq. He played a direct and personal role in sending thousands of high school students and youngsters to run over mine fields. In 1987, Khomeini appointed him as his personal representative in the regime's Supreme Defense Council.
4. In July 1988, fearing advances made by the National Liberation Army of Iran during "Eternal Light" operation, Mir Hossein Moussavi, at the time the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, sent Sayyad Shirazi as the head of a mission to the country's western region to "assess the situation" and "take the necessary decisions."
5. Several hours after Operation Eternal Light was launched in July 1988, Sayyad Shirazi was dispatched to Kermanshah on Khomeini's orders. He was taken to the scene of the operation at midnight by a Revolutionary Guards Air Corps helicopter. In an interview with the state-run television on July 28, 1998, Sayyad Shirazi admitted that many army officers and soldiers refused to confront the National Liberation Army. Sayyad Shirazi, however, gave them emphatic orders to fire. He personally boarded a helicopter gunship and fired on combatants of the National Liberation Army. In this interview, Sayyad Shirazi said that he had told the pilot: "This is an enemy column. Attack it. Begin until the other helicopters arrive. The pilot went ahead, but returned. I asked why have you returned? He said these are our own people, how can I shoot at them?... Despite my insistence, he said, Ôno, I am afraid. I am worried."
6. At the end of Operation Eternal Light, Sayyad Shirazi and the forces under his command, launched a major and ruthless wave of arrests, repression and massacre of the people of villages and cities in the area who had cooperated with the combatants of the National Liberation Army. This murderous henchman and his mercenaries also captured many combatants and ruthlessly tortured, mutilated or raped, and finally executed them. After execution, they hanged their bodies from trees or left them on the side of the road to terrorize and intimidate the public Eternal Light's operational region.
7. As reward for his crimes, Khamenei appointed Sayyad Shirazi as deputy chief of inspections in the General Command HQ of the Armed Forces in October 1989.
8. Sayyad Shirazi was always among the primary planners of the suppression of the people of Iranian Kurdistan. In November 1992, he headed a delegation of the Guards Corps and the regular Armed Forces commanders on a visit to Kurdistan to consider ways to confront the people of Kurdistan and peshmargas. Some 50 brigadiers from the Guards Corps and regular military, including GC Brig. Shamshiri, deputy commander of the Guards Corps Bassij Force and GC Brig. Tamizi, one of the forces' commanders were in that delegation.
9. In September 1993, Sayyad Shirazi was appointed by Khamenei as the Deputy Chief of the General Command staff of the clerical regime's Armed Forces. Until he was brought to justice by the Mojahedin, he was pursuing his crimes against the Iranian people in that post.
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
April 10, 1999
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