Draft:Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam

Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam
File:Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam.jpg
Name	Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam
Other Names	Father of Iran's Missiles
Personal Details
Birth Place	Template:Horizontal list
Brith Date	6 Aban 1338 SH
Death Date	21 Aban 1390 SH
Religion	Islam

Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam was an advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC in missile affairs and the Head of the IRGC Self-Sufficiency Organization, who became known as the "Father of Iran's Missiles" due to his activities in the IRGC artillery and the establishment, production, and enhancement of missile capabilities during the Imposed War and thereafter. Among his records and responsibilities in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were: Intelligence Officer of IRGC Region 3 North, Commander of Mortar Fire Support, Founder of the Artillery, Commander of Ground-to-Ground Missiles, Commander of the Air Force Missiles, Deputy Commander of the Air Force, Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC in Missile Affairs, and Head of the IRGC Self-Sufficiency Organization. Trusting in working with youth, good temper and always smiling despite exhausting work, special attention and extraordinary respect for his mother, wife, and children, material and spiritual support for the family, self-confidence and dignity, great effort and perseverance, absolute obedience to the Guardianship, unparalleled management and using minimum facilities for maximum benefit, were among his most important ethical characteristics.

Biography

General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam was born on the 6th of Aban, 1338 SH, in the Sarcheshmeh neighborhood of Tehran. His father, Mahmoud Tehrani Moghaddam, was a tailor, and due to his father's occupation, they moved to the Shokoufeh neighborhood and then to the Baharestan neighborhood.

Education

He completed his elementary and vocational school periods in the Shokoufeh and Baharestan neighborhoods, and after finishing his secondary education in the field of Industries (Industrial Cutting Parts), in 1977 CE (1356 SH), he was accepted into the associate degree program in Industries (Industrial Cutting Parts) at the Nafisi Technical College (current Khaje Nasir al-Din University) and then continued his studies at the bachelor's level in Industrial Engineering and successfully obtained an engineering degree.

Cultural Activities

Hassan was a mosque-going child in every sense; he was not many years old when he went to the Hazrat Zeynab Kubra Mosque in Sarcheshmeh, Tehran, with his brothers, and began their activities in 1969 CE (1348 SH) under the supervision of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Lavasani. After entering this mosque, Hassan and his brothers turned towards cultural activities and also became members of the mosque's choir group. This choir group became the core of the same choir group that welcomed the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, upon his entry into our country on the 12th of Bahman, 1979 CE (1357 SH), by singing the "Khomeini Ey Imam" chant.

Revolutionary Activities

Along with his brothers, alongside all the Muslim and revolutionary people of Iran, he raised the flag of struggle, justice-seeking, and liberation from the colonialism of America and Global Arrogance. In those same days of popular struggles against the Pahlavi Regime, with the help of his friends, Hassan used water pipe junctions to make hand grenades and gave them to the revolutionaries. One of his memories in confronting the military of the Imperial Regime is noteworthy; he says: "It was the night of 22 Bahman, at Imam Hussein Square (formerly Fawzia), by throwing a hand grenade, we confiscated a military army vehicle and captured the colonel riding in that vehicle."

Membership in the IRGC

Tehrani Moghaddam joined the IRGC at the age of 21 in Tir 1980 CE (1359 SH). His first responsibility after entering the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was being the Intelligence Officer of IRGC Region 3 North.

Presence at the Front

During the Iran-Iraq War, he was the first commander of the IRGC artillery and the founder of the artillery unit in the IRGC. Afterwards, he handed over the responsibility of the artillery unit to Hassan Shafiezadeh and went to the IRGC missile unit and took responsibility for this unit. He was also influential in the formation and establishment of the IRGC Missile Command.

Missile Activities

In the early days of the Revolution, the shortage of war equipment in confronting strong uprisings in border areas such as separatist incidents in Kurdistan, and the invasion of the Ba'athist regime of Iraq, demonstrated the necessity of strengthening the military aspect; since the maximum combat capability of the IRGC was a limited number of combat battalions with guerrilla and non-classical methods, with which it became engaged in fighting insurgents and armed counter-revolutionaries in Kurdistan, and the heaviest weapon available to the IRGC was a number of mortars, RPGs, and machine guns. While the counter-revolution in Kurdistan was armed with artillery. After Operation Saman-ol-Aemmeh, which led to the lifting of the siege of Abadan, among the spoils obtained from Iraq was a 155 mm towed artillery battery that was stationed by the enemy north of Abadan between Dar Khovin and Pol-e Mared. This artillery battery was immediately repaired and operationalized and was used against the enemy in the same region. Three months later, in Operation Fath-ol-Bostan, again a 130 mm artillery battalion and a 105 mm Portuguese battery of the Iraqi Army were captured by the fighters of the 14th Imam Hussein Brigade (AS) Isfahan, which was organized by order of Hossein Kharrazi (Brigade Commander) and in Operation Fath-ol-Mobin, proceeded to execute fire in support of Basij maneuver battalions. These two incidents became the origin of the formation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Artillery. Tehrani Moghaddam, after Operation Saman-ol-Aemmeh, noticed the weakness of friendly support fire stationed in the front lines of the War and after multiple reviews, finally in the Fall of 1360 SH, submitted the plan for organizing support fire (mortars) in a documented form to Hassan Bagheri, and after the signing of this plan by Mohsen Rezaei (then Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), its execution was communicated to Hassan Bagheri via a letter, and he gave it to Tehrani Moghaddam. In the text of this letter, addressed to the commanders of Qods, Nasr, Fajr, and Fath Headquarters of the IRGC in the southern fronts, it was ordered: "Brother Hassan Moghaddam is introduced as the commander of supporting IRGC mortar fires, it is necessary to cooperate with him".

Establishment of IRGC Artillery

According to Hassan Tehrani's own account, after Operation Fath-ol-Mobin, in the IRGC Shush, to Sardar Rashid, he started organizing the IRGC artillery with the help of Martyr Hassan Shafieezadeh, Mohammad Aghaei, and Martyr Nahidi:

"Operation Fath-ol-Mobin ended. I was in the IRGC Shush when I was giving the report to Aqa Rashid, I saw Aqa Rashid saying with a smile: 'Moghaddam, go organize the IRGC artillery. Go after the artillery'. I said Aqa Rashid, we are organizing mortars. In Operation Fath-ol-Mobin, 148 pieces of various Russian guns had been captured as spoils by the IRGC. At that time, the IRGC did not have a brigade. It was decided that we go bring those guns and organize them. The dear Martyr Hassan Shafieezadeh was the first person I went after. After Operation Fath-ol-Mobin, I brought him from the Al-Mahdi Brigade of Shush to myself, and Mr. Mohammad Aghaei who was among the officials of the IRGC artillery, plus Martyr Nahidi. We gathered these elite smart kids and formed the IRGC artillery".

Establishment of Artillery Technical Research Center in Ahvaz

Sardar Tehrani Moghaddam has explained the method of establishing the Artillery Technical Research Center in Ahvaz as follows: "At that time, our captured guns were 156 pieces, all of which had been captured in Dasht-e Abbas and Chaneh. We invited our Army brothers to train these guns, and a team from the Army artillery was dispatched for us, and when they saw the guns, they said these guns are Russian and the training we have seen was American guns and we do not know the application of these guns. We wanted to use these guns in Operation Beit-ol-Moqaddas but had received no training. We had many guns with good ammunition but they were not useful for us. Brother Bahman Chirehdast, due to the expertise he had, operationalized the guns and the artillery repair and maintenance center was established and the guns were sent to operations. The second person who came to our aid was Martyr Nahidi, who very patiently gave us the necessary training for using captured equipment such as metal quadrants, Pakdo cameras, and sighting equipment".

Establishment of IRGC Missile Command

According to the report of Brigadier General Yaqub Zahedi, Commander of the IRGC Artillery during the Sacred Defense and comrade of Martyr Tehrani, in Aban 1362 SH, the mission of establishing and organizing the "IRGC Surface-to-Surface Missile Command" was assigned to Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, who had great ideas in the missile field.

Presence in Syria for Scud B Missile Launch Training

During the trip of Rafiqdoost, the then Minister of the IRGC to Syria, he requests missile assistance from Hafez al-Assad to respond to the aggression of the Ba'athists, but Bashar al-Assad, due to the fact that Syria's missile reserves were under the control of the Russians, only agrees to provide missile training to Iranian forces. With the decision of war commanders and leaders of the nascent Islamic system, Hassan Tehrani, along with twelve men from the IRGC artillery and two translators, on 12 Aban 1363 SH, headed to Syria to undergo necessary training for launching Scud missiles, and also lay the foundation for the IRGC missile unit. Despite all problems, Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam and his team learned the necessary training and prepared numerous booklets resulting from several months of continuous and intensive training, from various processes of testing, preparation, launch, etc., and on 30 Azar 1363 SH, this course ended. But the Syrians suggested that they also teach young Iranian officers how to prepare and launch FROG rockets. Tehrani Moghaddam agrees to this suggestion and selects 6 young officer members of the 13-person team to undergo the short FROG rocket launch training course and introduces them to the Syrians, and the group heads to another garrison to undergo the FROG 7 rocket launch course. But eventually, this course also ended and the young Iranian officers, who were now the first missile officers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 11 Dey 1363, headed to Tehran.

Shelling Basra

After the approval of His Eminence Imam Khomeini for tit-for-tat response to Iraq's missile attacks, and lack of access by Iran to a missile system, the IRGC forces were able to respond in kind with artillery. And in a session where Major General Moghaddam was present as the Commander of IRGC Artillery, it was decided that the city of Basra would be subjected to artillery attack with 130 mm guns, whose maximum range was 28 to 30 kilometers.

Launch of the First Missile towards Iraq

Iran's first missile was launched on 21 Esfand 1363 SH, to Kirkuk, and the second missile was also launched in the early morning of 23 Esfand 1364 SH, to an 18-story bank building in Baghdad, and the next missile landed in the Army Officers Club of Iraq in Baghdad and killed about 200 Iraqi commanders. Brigadier General Yaqub Zahedi, Commander of the Artillery of the IRGC during the Sacred Defense and comrade of Martyr Tehrani, stated the following regarding these air attacks: "When it was decided that the brothers of the IRGC themselves launch the first missile towards Baghdad, we went to Kermanshah together. The preparations were made and we targeted the Baghdad Officers Club. The late Martyr Moghaddam suggested that we first recite the Tawassul prayer, and after the prayer, he spoke to God in Persian and said: 'O God, we do not want to kill the people of Iraq. We want to eliminate the military personnel who kill both us and the Iraqis. O God, hit this missile to the Officers Club'. The missile was launched and we all sat by the radio. After a few minutes, the BBC radio announced that a missile had destroyed the Baghdad Officers Club and a large number of people present there were killed. I kissed Martyr Moghaddam's forehead and said this hitting the target was the result of your sincerity and purity".

IRGC Air Force Missile Commander

Following the issuance of the historic command by Imam Khomeini regarding the formation of the three forces of the IRGC, Martyr Moghaddam was appointed as the Missile Commander of the IRGC Air Force in 1364 SH. Mohsen Rezaei says in this regard: "When the City Wars began, Saddam was severely attacking our cities with missiles and air bombardment, and a lot of pressure was coming on us. One day I asked Brother Mohsen Rafiqdoost, who was responsible for IRGC logistics, and I said we have no choice but to answer missiles with missiles; so we sent him to Syria and Libya and at the end of the War also North Korea. Then I saw we must organize the missiles ourselves. After consulting with Brothers Rashid, Safavi, and Shamkhani, I reached the conclusion that the suitable person for this job is Hassan Tehrani. We called him and said hand over the artillery to Shafieezadeh and you form the missile unit with a team of your friends. He looked at me a bit and said nothing. Later, Brother Jaafari, responsible for IRGC armor, told me that when we were in Syria, Hassan told me: Brother Mohsen has asked me to form a missile brigade. Artillery could be done, but missiles are very complex. Anyway, we must do this work with reliance on God".

Efforts for Independence in Missile Industry

From 20 Mordad 1365 to 10 Dey 1365, after Operation Valfajr 8 and before Karbala 4, the Libyans obstructed missile cooperation and we were unable to respond. On 20 Mordad 65, we hit the Al-Doura Oil Refinery of Iraq. At this juncture, we fired five missiles, but due to Libyan obstruction, we were unable to respond for 35 days. The Libyans had raised 38 objections on the parts platform. Some parts were imported from North Korea simultaneously with negotiations. Mohsen Rezaei's account: "Gaddafi thought that by giving a number of missiles he could win our hearts, and the Imam allows him to visit Iran after several years from the Revolution, so he sent several missiles along with launchers and a number of experts to Iran. As soon as we started working with them, we heard that they had left the garrison we had designated for them and gone to the Libya embassy along with parts of the missiles, in such a way that the missiles could not be used. Hassan and his team operationalized these missiles within two months, and as soon as Iraq fired a missile, we hit the Al-Rashid Hotel, which was the gathering place of diplomats".

Participation in Mersad Operation

According to Sardar Nami: "In the midst of Operation Mersad, we saw Major General Moghaddam as a crew member at a 120 mortar firing at the enemy and Munafiqin. Major General Moghaddam means someone who was serving as a missile commander, when he feels the necessity, comes as a 120 crew member to confront the enemy".

According to Sardar Nami: "Simultaneously with carrying out tit-for-tat missile operations and with the follow-ups that Major General Moghaddam himself made, towards the end of the war, we achieved a domestic missile and rocket system called Nazeat rocket, whose range is between 80 to 120 kilometers and with the efforts that were made, it had reached 150 kilometers. Among the reasons for designing and building this system was to help alongside the Scud missile so that it could have the power to confront the City Wars with a high rate of fire. The Scud missile is an expensive missile and is used for specific targets in terms of preparation and quality of launch. We sometimes had targets with extensive dimensions that definitely required accuracy or high explosive power, but the only system we had was this Scud, and therefore from that period, simultaneously with research activities for building Scud missiles, the construction of cheap systems with higher maneuverability was also started, so that we could hit some targets that do not have much value and importance with that system. Right there, the effort and follow-up for building and producing the Nazeat missile was planned in the first step and put on the agenda, that we succeeded in achieving this system at the end of the War, i.e., late 66".

Success in Building Shahab 3

Account of Brigadier General "Abbas Khani Armani", Deputy Commander of Artillery and Missiles of the IRGC Ground Forces: "It is true that the Ministry of Defense enters the discussion of building the Shahab 3 missile as the supporting unit of the armed forces, but the majority of its research work was done by Martyr Moghaddam. This dear Martyr believed that nothing should be built by others and then given to us. In other words, he said if our armed forces understood what tools they need to confront based on the type of threat, they must take steps to produce it; because domestic experts of our country possess very high capability and operational power".

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of Major General Hassan Tehrani from the time of the Imposed War until his martyrdom, in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, are as follows:

1. Head of Intelligence for IRGC North Zone 3;
2. Commander of Mortar Fire Support for the IRGC;
3. Founder of the IRGC Artillery;
4. Commander of IRGC Surface-to-Surface Missiles;
5. Commander of IRGC Air Force Missiles;
6. Deputy of the IRGC Air Force;
7. Advisor to the IRGC Commander-in-Chief on Missile Affairs;
8. Head of the IRGC Self-Sufficiency Organization.

Martyrdom

Finally, Martyr Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam on 21 Aban 1390 SH, at the Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) Garrison, Malard County, during a mission due to an ammunition depot explosion, was martyred along with a number of his comrades and joined his martyr comrades Ahmad Kazemi, Hassan Shafiei, Hassan Ghazi, Gholamreza Yazdani, Alireza Nahidi, Mostafa Taghikhah, etc.

Reactions

Ayatollah Khamenei, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, wrote a statement to appreciate Tehrani Moghaddam and his colleagues before their martyrdom, the text of which is as follows:

In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful

With the help and guidance of the All-Knowing and Almighty God, you have managed to accomplish a great task. This once again displays the miracle of the abilities of the firm resolve of a faithful human before our eyes and makes us more hopeful than ever for determination and effort. Do not tire of advancing on the path of recognizing high goals and shortcut paths to reach them, and then exerting effort and taking steps; do not be content and satisfied with mid-way stations; trust in the Great God and bring all your ability to the field. May God be the helper and guardian of you faithful, knowledgeable, and hardworking men.

Seyyed Ali Khamenei, 9 Khordad 1389 SH.

Ethical Characteristics

Working with youth and encouraging them and having trust in the youth, possessing good morals and having a constant smile despite exhausting work, special attention and extraordinary respect for mother, wife, and children, material and spiritual help and support to the family, self-confidence and dignity, great effort and perseverance, being absolutely obedient to the Velayat (Guardianship), unparalleled management and using minimum facilities and maximum profitability, were among the most important ethical characteristics of Martyr Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam.

Will and Handwriting

Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, in part of his will, emphasized the necessity of holding mourning ceremonies for the Master and Chief of the Martyrs Hazrat Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him) and stated: "Whenever you remember me, for my happiness, recall and mention Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) and mention the tragedy of Master Aba Abdullah and the Infallible Imams (peace be upon them)"

A undated handwriting from Martyr Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the man behind Iran's missile program, addressed to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution was published, in which it is revealed that Martyr Tehrani Moghaddam had pursued the project "super-fast missiles" long before his martyrdom.

The text of this letter is as follows:

In the Name of the Exalted

To the Presence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Grand Ayatollah Khamenei

Peace be upon you; With greetings and respect

I express my utmost gratitude and appreciation for the acceptance of my family to visit Your Presence in person and declare; I and my family are devoted to you, the Deputy of the Imam of Time and Heydari Light, you are our love. God Almighty is witness that whatever we have, we use in the direction of obtaining your satisfaction and knowing your path and goal, which is the realization of pure Islam and the conduct of Ahl al-Bayt. In all these stages, we have witnessed the boundless divine grace and favors. Do not step into the door and ask nothing, the path itself will tell you how to go.

Praise be to God. What a generous and kind God we have. To tell the truth, His boundless grace and granting have made us fearless and bold. Our Master and Lord, I want to fill your divine and powerful hands and strengthen your back for the sake of God, we want to help Ali of the Time. If we were not in the time of our Master Ali (peace be upon him) to rise for his help and be sacrificed for Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him) ... this knot remains in my heart, we want to compensate for it in the retinue of your Deputy Walī al-ʿAṣr (may Allah hasten his reappearance), that our chest be your shield, O Son of Zahra and O light from the spark of Amir al-Mu'minin. In short, Master, we went after the final stage of the plan and the peak point of deterrence and power of this divine system, meaning access to super-fast reaction missiles in the range targeting Israel and access to satellite-launching missiles.

See Also

• Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
• Islamic Republic of Iran
• Iran–Iraq War
• Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist

Sources

• Who is the Maker of Iran's First Indigenous Missile?, Fararu, Publication date: 21 Aban 1400 SH, Access date: 22 Mordad 1403 SH.

• Biography of Martyr General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam / Timeline of the Life of the Father of Iran's Missiles, Seraj Andisheh Scientific and Educational Information Base, Publication date: n.d., Access date: 22 Mordad 1403 SH.

• Missile Men in Syria; Training Scud-B Missile Launch in Damascus, Center for Documents of the Islamic Revolution, Publication date: 3 Azar 1394 SH, Access date: 22 Mordad 1403 SH.

• Hardworking Scientist, Office for Preserving and Publishing the Works of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, Publication date: 21 Aban 1394 SH, Access date: 22 Mordad 1403 SH.

• Personality Traits of Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, Hawza Information Base, Publication date: 21 Aban 1401 SH, Access date: 22 Mordad 1403 SH.

• Part of Martyr Tehrani Moghaddam's Will, Tasnim News Agency, Publication date: 21 Aban 1391 SH, Access date: 22 Mordad 1403 SH.