Hassan Darvishi Bayatiani, known as Hassan Darvish, was one of the commanders of the 17th Qom Brigade and later the 15th Imam Hassan Mojtaba (as) Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was martyred on March 12, 1985, during Operation Badr.

Hassan Darvish was born on April 21, 1962, in Jafarabad Village (Kharkub), a rural district of Shush, into a farming family. His father’ s name was Namdar, and his mother was Sakineh Javaheri. During his childhood, with the implementation of the land reform program by the Pahlavi regime, his family’ s farmland was confiscated by the state, and their house was destroyed. As a result, the family was forced to leave the village and migrate to Dezful. He completed the fifth grade of primary school in Dezful, but due to the family’ s difficult economic conditions, he left school and went to Shush to live with his brother, where he began working in his brother’ s shop.⁠[1]

With the expansion of popular protests against the Pahlavi regime in 1978, Hassan Darvish joined the ranks of the revolutionaries. He participated in demonstrations, and among his activities during the final days of the Pahlavi regime were writing slogans on walls and distributing leaflets.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he joined the Islamic Revolution Committee of Shush as a volunteer, and on September 1, 1980, he became a member of the Basij. In 1980, he married Sareh Esmaeili; the couple had two children, Abdullah and Zeynab.⁠[2]

Following the Iraqi invasion of Iran and the advance of the Iraqi 1st Mechanized Division toward Shush and the Karkheh River, on September 30, 1980, Hassan Darvish, together with fourteen members of the Shush IRGC, volunteer popular forces, and several Iranian Army personnel under the command of Gholamabbas Qalavand (the IRGC operations commander in Shush), attacked enemy forces that had reached the eastern side of the Karkheh River. After the engagement, he and other IRGC forces were positioned along the eastern bank of the river.⁠[3]

During these days (November 2, 1980), Heydar-Ali Talebi— known as Ostad Mirza— from the Najafabad IRGC arrived in the area. After coordinating with the Army, he began conducting reconnaissance and gathering information. Although Heydar-Ali had not officially been appointed commander of the Shush front by any authority, the forces followed him as their commander until his martyrdom on December 17, 1980. During Ostad Mirza’ s presence on the Shush front, Hassan Darvish fought alongside him against the enemy.⁠[4]

After the martyrdom of Heydar-Ali Talebi, Morteza Saffari, the new commander of the Shush front, appointed Hassan Darvish as line commander and his deputy. Among Darvish’ s activities on the Shush front were establishing the weapons unit of the Shush IRGC, deploying 120-mm mortars east of the Karkheh River, directing artillery fire to prevent the waste of ammunition, conducting reconnaissance of operational areas, and participating in Operation Imam Mahdi (as) on 22nd of September 1981.⁠[5]

With the formation and organization of the 17th Qom Brigade, Hassan Darvish initially served as its deputy commander and soon after became its commander. During his command, the brigade participated in Operation Fath al-Mubin, established defensive lines in Barqazeh, Tineh, and the Reqabiyeh Pass, captured and secured Hill 182 simultaneously with Operation Beit al-Muqaddas, took part in the third and fourth phases of that operation, established defensive lines at the Zeyd Outpost, and participated in Operation Ramazan.⁠[6]

In mid-July 1982, the 17th Qom Brigade was renamed the 17th Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) Brigade, and on July 24 Mahdi Zeinoddin was appointed as its commander.⁠[7] Later on, Hassan Darvish left the 17th Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) Brigade and was appointed commander of the newly established 20th Bethat Brigade.⁠[8]

After some time, several brigades under the command of the Khuzestan IRGC, including the 20th Bethat, 43rd Beit al-Muqaddas, 46th Fajr, 37th Noor, and 22nd Badr of Khorramshahr, were dissolved. Then, Hassan Darvish was assigned to create a new unit using their resources. He subsequently organized the 15th Imam Hassan Mojtaba (as) Brigade, comprising six battalions, in the general area of Khorramshahr. The area known as sites 4 and 5 and the Salibi-Khat Heights in the Fath al-Mubin operational zone were selected as the brigade’ s main headquarters, and the brigade command post was established at Site 4. Thereafter, the brigade’ s units and personnel were transferred to this headquarters.⁠[9]

Under his command, the 15th Imam Hassan (AS) Brigade engaged in a series of key missions and activities, including participation in the operations Muharram and Valfajr-e Muqaddamati; establishing defensive lines in Sheib-e Neysan, the Doqolooha Hills, and the Karameh and Vahab outposts; leading amphibious training for the brigade at the Andimeshk training beach; relocating the brigade to Abadan and Minoo Island; and conducting reconnaissance along the Arvand River and in the Al-Faw region.⁠[10] In the summer of 1983, Behrouz Gholami became Darvish’ s deputy. In November 1983, Darvish traveled to Lebanon on a mission that lasted about six weeks.⁠[11] He returned to Iran at the same time that Operation Kheibar began. Together with the 25th Karbala Division (IRGC), he went to Ilam to take part in Operation Valfajr 6. The operation was launched as a diversionary move alongside Operation Kheibar on February 22, 1984, in the border area of Chazabeh and Chilat, south of Dehloran. In that operation, he commanded one of the operational axes.⁠[12]

After Operation Valfajr 6, Hassan Darvish went to the Kheibar operational area to join the Seyyed al-Shuhada (as) Battalion of the 15th Imam Hassan (as) Brigade in engaging the enemy. During the fighting, he was wounded⁠[13] and transferred to a hospital in Tehran. However, he requested to be discharged and went back to Shush, where he continued his treatment.⁠[14]

After recovering, he went to the 17th Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) Division in Qom and became the commander of the division’ s second axis. Shortly afterward, however, he was redeployed to the southern front.⁠[15] Upon returning to the south, he joined the Najaf Headquarters and served in its operations unit.⁠[16]

In Operation Badr, Hassan Darvish served as a free (independent) operational commander of the 15th Imam Hassan Mojtaba (as) Brigade. He was martyred on March 12, 1985, while carrying out a mission to destroy an enemy floating outpost in the Tabuk waterway.⁠[17] After the funeral ceremonies, his body was buried in the Martyrs’ Cemetery of Shush.

Several books have been written about his life, including Yademan-e Pasdar-e Shahid Sardar Hassan Darvish (Memorial of the Martyred IRGC Commander Hassan Darvish), containing the recollections of his family and comrades, written by Isa Khalili and published by Niloufaran; To Baz Mi-Ayei (You Will Return), a narrative account of his life by Hojjatollah Izadi, published by the Congress of Commanders and the 16,000 Martyrs of Karbala of Khuzestan; Abrah‑e Tabuk: Sharhi bar Zendegi‑nameh va Karname‑ye Amaliyati‑ye Sardar Sarlashkar‑e Pasdar Shahid Hassan Darvish, Bonyangozar va Farmande‑ye Lashkar‑e 15 Imam Hassan Mojtaba (as) (Tabuk Waterway: A Study of the Biography and Operational Record of Martyr Major General Hassan Darvish, Founder and Commander of the 15th Imam Hassan Mojtaba (as) Division) written by Maryam Latifi and published by Imam Hussain (as) University of Officer Training and Revolutionary Guard Education; and Bonbast-Shekan: Hassan be Revayat-e Aqa Mohsen va Yaran (The Pathbreaker: Hassan as Recounted by Aqa Mohsen and His Companions), recounting the memories of Mohsen Rezaei and other friends of the martyr Hassan Darvish, written by Maryam Latifi and published by Sarzamin-e Noor.