Kerman Province was not directly involved in the imposed war, but like other provinces, it participated in all stages of the defense. Kerman Province is located in the southeast of Iran’ s Central Desert and at the eastern end of the Zagros mountain range. It is bordered to the north by South Khorasan and Yazd Provinces, to the south by Hormozgan Province, to the east by Sistan and Baluchestan Province, and to the west by Fars Province. With a population of more than 3 million and an area of 183,285 square kilometers, the province accounts for 11 percent of Iran’ s total area and has 23 counties, 58 districts, 71 cities, 151 rural districts, and 11,697 villages. The language spoken by the people of the province is Persian with a Kermani accent.⁠[1] Destructive earthquakes occur in this province, including the Bam earthquake in 2003.⁠[2]

From the very first day of the imposed war, Kerman Province was active both in dispatching forces and in supporting the war-affected areas. The people of the province either served in the armed forces in an organized capacity or were among the volunteers defending the homeland. The volunteers initially went to the fronts individually, then in small groups, and shortly afterward in companies and battalions.⁠[3]

In the first year of the imposed war, combatants from the Kerman region were dispatched, in addition to the western front, to Susangerd, Dehlavieh, and Malekiyeh, and participated in the Imam Mahdi and Zolfagharieh operations.

The organized presence of combatants from Kerman Province on the war fronts began on 5‌^th Tir 1360 (26 June 1981), with the dispatch of the “ Saf” Company, consisting of 360 Basij members and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel, for the Shahid Chamran Operation (Tarrah, Karkheh-Kur, and Karkheh-Nur).

In Azar 1360 (December 1981), the Hazrat Abu al-Fadl, Rajai and Bahonar Martyrs battalions, and a reserve battalion from Kerman Province, under the command of Qasem Soleimani (martyr), participated in Operation Tariq al-Quds. After the operation, the 41st Sarallah Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was formed at Dukuhah Garrison under the command of Qasem Soleimani, from forces from the three provinces of Kerman, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Hormozgan, with four battalions. The brigade participated in the Fath al-Mubin (March 1982), Beit al-Moqaddas (May and June 1982), and Ramadan operations and was subsequently upgraded to a division.

The 41st Sarallah Division participated in 24 major operations and dozens of smaller operations during the Sacred Defense.⁠[4]

The Kerman Army Aviation (Havanirooz) Base, located west of the city, also participated in the Sacred Defense. With the outbreak of the imposed war, a group of helicopters from this base was stationed north of Abadan and in Mahshahr to support the defenders of Khorramshahr and Abadan and evacuate civilians to safe areas.⁠[5] Personnel from this base also participated in the operations to liberate Khuzestan, Fath al-Mubin⁠[6], Beit al-Moqaddas⁠[7], Khyber, Valfajr 8, Karbala 5, and Mersad.⁠[8]

The Army’ s 05 Training Center in Kerman is also one of the training centers for the Army Ground Forces’ basic combat training course. It sent 160,000 soldiers to the fronts after training. On 21‌^st Mehr 1360 (13 October 1981), the 808th Combat Battalion⁠[9] was also formed from personnel of this center.⁠[10] Among the personnel of this battalion during the Sacred Defense, 57 were martyred, 93 became disabled veterans, and 5 became former prisoners of war.⁠[11]

Kerman Province ranks second in the country after Fars Province in terms of nomadic population. During the imposed war, 11,000 nomads from the province were organized to participate at the fronts. With 1,200 nomadic martyrs, Kerman Province ranks second in the country in the number of nomadic martyrs, and 57 nomads from the province are also among the former prisoners of war of the Sacred Defense.⁠[12]

The Kerman Province Construction Jihad also dispatched more than 20,000 people to the battlefronts; of these, 130 were martyred, more than 1,000 became disabled veterans, and 14 became former prisoners of war. During Operations Khyber and Karbala 10⁠[13], this provincial institution operated with the 62‌^nd Khyber Battalion. After the operation, the reconstruction of Bostan (Khuzestan) and its villages was entrusted to Kerman Province. The work included reconstruction of rural residential buildings and infrastructure, mine clearance on agricultural lands, land leveling, dredging of streams and water-transfer canals, pumping river water onto agricultural lands, and road reconstruction.⁠[14]

On 10‌^th Mehr 1359 (2 October 1980), the Kerman Province War Relief Headquarters was established, and the sites of Friday prayers across the province became the main locations for collecting public donations. After the formation of the Sarallah Brigade in Bahman 1360 (January– February 1982), most of the province’ s public donations were sent to this brigade. The province’ s public donations remained at the disposal of the 41‌^stSarallah Division until the end of the imposed war. The Labbaik-guyān-e Emam, Ansar al-Hossein, Arbaeen, Sepahian-e Hazrat Mohammad, Sepahian-e Hazrat Sahib al-Zaman, and Amir al-Mo’ menin caravans were among the caravans that transported the province’ s public donations from Kahnuj, Rafsanjan, Sirjan, and other cities to the fronts.⁠[15]

During the imposed war, 1,319 students,⁠[16] 116 clerics⁠[17], and 157 members of the provincial law-enforcement forces (Gendarmerie, Police, and Islamic Revolution Committees) were martyred⁠[18]. The province has the distinction of being home to 6,125 mothers of one martyr and 257 mothers of two martyrs.⁠[19] During the Sacred Defense, Kerman Province offered 6,056 martyrs, 18,619 disabled veterans, and 1,263 former prisoners of war.⁠[20]

Every year, the anniversary ceremony commemorating the martyrdom of General Qasem Soleimani is held with the participation of approximately half a million pilgrims from Iran and abroad.⁠[21] On the fourth anniversary of the assassination of this martyr (13 Dey 1402 / 3 January 2024), a bomb explosion carried out by the terrorist ISIS group along the route to the Kerman Martyrs’ Cemetery resulted in 89 deaths and 284 injuries.⁠[22] In 1403 (2024– 2025), a memorial to the martyrs of this terrorist incident was also installed in Kerman.⁠[23]