Ali Hashemi Movilhe was the commander of the secret Nosrat Headquarters and the 6th Imam Sadeq (as) Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was martyred on June 25, 1988, on Majnoon Islands.

Ali Hashemi was born in 1961 in the Hasirabad neighborhood in Ahvaz.⁠[1] He completed his primary and secondary education in Ahvaz. As the popular struggle against the Pahlavi regime intensified, Hashemi began his political activities and was arrested several times by SAVAK. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he played a role in establishing the Islamic Revolution Committees. After its formation, he was transferred from the committees to the IRGC. When anti-revolutionary activities broke out in Khuzestan Province, Hashemi and some others founded the Hamidiyeh County IRGC. They engaged in fighting against the anti-revolutionaries and the Baathist regime of Iraq, which was sending weapons and ammunition into Iran through the Hawizeh Marshes. After the martyrdom of Ali-Reza Nazar-Aqaei (the first commander of the Hamidiyeh IRGC), Ali Hashemi was appointed its commander by order of Ali Shamkhani (commander of the Khuzestan IRGC).⁠[2]

Before the Iran-Iraq War, Hashemi had been accepted into the medical program at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, but with the start of the war, he left the university to participate in the war.⁠[3]

During the war, when the Iraqis consolidated their positions in the occupied Dasht-e Azadegan plain, Ali Hashemi and his comrades, on January 21, 1981, blew up an enemy earthen dam with explosives. As the water advanced toward the enemy positions, the Iraqi troops had to retreat. The second operation carried out by Hashemi and the Hamidiyeh IRGC units took place northwest of Ahvaz, along the Hamidiyeh axis, between the Hamidiyeh–Susangard Road and the Karkheh-e Kur River. Because of the martyrdom of Dr. Mustafa Chamran, it was named Operation “Martyr Chamran”. On July 27, 1981, they succeeded in liberating the northern Karkheh-e Kur area. The third operation by the Hamidiyeh IRGC under Hashemi’s command in the early months of the war was Operation “Martyrs Rajai and Bahonar” on September 1, 1981. This successful operation sought to complete the objectives of Operation Martyr Chamran in the northern Karkheh-e Kur region.⁠[4]

On December 6, 1981, after the martyrdom of Chamran (commander of the Irregular Warfare Headquarters), the forces of that headquarters stationed in Khuzestan Province merged with the Hamidiyeh IRGC under Ali Hashemi’s command, and the 37th Noor Brigade was formed with him as commander. Before its dissolution on July 16, 1982, the brigade participated in operations Umm al-Hasanayn (sa), Fath al-Mubin, and Beit al-Muqaddas.⁠[5]

In 1982, Ali Hashemi married his cousin, Somayeh Ahvazian. They had one daughter and one son.⁠[6]

On the eve of Operation Valfajr Muqaddamati in February 1983, the 37th Noor Brigade was dissolved, and Ali Hashemi became commander of the Susangerd IRGC. Before Operation Valfajr 8, which led to the liberation of Al-Faw, he led deception operations to divert the enemy’s attention from Al-Faw toward the Hawizeh Marshes. For example, on his orders, trucks moved toward the marshes during the day and returned secretly at night out of the enemy’s sight. A large number of bunkers were also built in the marshes to make it look as though a major force was about to be deployed there. Some bunkers were even designed with PVC pipes so that they resembled tanks from the air. With these artificial movements in the Nasr Headquarters (in the Hawizeh Marshes), Iraq became convinced that Iran’s main attack would come from the marshes. Because of these actions, when Iran actually attacked Al-Faw, Iraq did not mount a serious defense for some time and even moved part of its forces from the area closer to the marshes to block what it thought would be the main attack.⁠[7]

In 1983, when Iran’s frontline operations had stalled due to the enemy’s engineering and intelligence readiness, Ali Hashemi was tasked with scouting the Hoor al-Azim in southwestern Khuzestan Province to pave the way for launching an operation in that area. Accordingly, on secret orders from the IRGC Commander at the time, for the first time in the Iran-Iraq War, a headquarters named “Nosrat” was established specifically for reconnaissance and intelligence operations. Its mission was to scout the Hoor al-Azim / Hawizeh Marshes area.⁠[8] As a result of the Nosrat Headquarters’ activities, less than nine months later, Operation Kheibar was carried out on February 22, 1984. In that operation, more than 1,000 square kilometers of the Hoor al-Azim marshes, 140 square kilometers of the Majnoon Islands, and 40 square kilometers in the Talaiyeh area came under Iranian control.⁠[9] Among the other activities of the Nosrat Headquarters were planning Operation Badr, the series of operations Quds, and cross-border reconnaissance deep inside Iraq, including the holy cities of Najaf, Karbala, and Samarra.⁠[10]

In 1986, Ali Hashemi became commander of the 6th Imam Jafar Sadeq (as) Corps, and also the command of the IRGC centers in Khuzestan and Lorestan provinces, the 5th Nasr Division, and other units was entrusted to him.⁠[11]

On June 25, 1988, just a few days before Iran accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598, while Ali Hashemi was present at the Khatam 4 Headquarters in the middle of the Shahid Hemmat Road (the route connecting Iran to the Majnoon Islands), the enemy launched a 48-hour chemical bombardment in an attempt to retake the Majnoon Islands. The attacks on the islands were so severe that senior war commanders asked Hashemi to leave the base and order a withdrawal of forces from Majnoon, but he postponed his own return to the rear until after all units had withdrawn from the islands. In the end, when only Ali Hashemi and fifteen of his comrades remained at Khatam 4 Headquarters, their communication with the command center was cut off.⁠[12] Shortly afterward, nine of the people remaining in the marshes managed to return, two were captured, and four went missing, including Ali Hashemi. Because there was a possibility he had been captured, Iranian authorities decided not to mention his name publicly in order to protect him. After Saddam’ fall, Iranian officials began searching the Iraqi prisoner-of-war camps for any sign of Ali Hashemi, but nothing was found, and eventually his martyrdom was confirmed.⁠[13]

After 22 years, the body of Martyr General Ali Hashemi, along with three of his companions, was discovered and identified by the Missing Persons Search Committee of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces. On Monday, May 17, 2010, after a funeral procession in Ahvaz, he was buried in the martyrs’ cemetery of the city.⁠[14]

According to the official report of the head of the Preservation and Publication of Sacred Defense Works Headquarters, Major General Ali Hashemi, together with General Mahdi Narimi and three others, had managed to leave the Majnoon Islands. However, at around 3:30 PM, after passing the emergency center of the 17th Ali ibn Abi Taleb (as) Division in Qom on Shahid Hemmat Road, their vehicle collided with an Iraqi helicopter that had apparently landed on the road to capture them. The vehicle overturned and caught fire, and all passengers were martyred.⁠[15]

Among the published works on Martyr Ali Hashemi are Hoor va Hamisheh (Marshes and Forever) published by Golgasht Publications, Sardar-e Hoor (Commander of the Marshes) by Congress for Commemorating the Commanders and 16,000 Martyrs of Khuzestan Province, Bastar-e Aram-e Hoor (The Calm Bed of the Marshes) by Emad-e Farda, Mardan-e Hoor (Men of the Marshes) by the Congress for Commemorating the Commanders and 16,000 Martyrs of Khuzestan Province, Mardi ke Shabih-e Hichkas Nist (A Man Unlike Anyone Else) by Ketab-e Mosafer, Raaz-e Gomshode-ye Majnoon (The Lost Secret of Majnoon) by Sarir, and Houri by Shahid Hadi Publications. The documentary “Zeer-e Sefr-e Marzi“ (Under Zero Border), directed by Mahdi Afsharnik, is also about Ali Hashemi going missing in the final days of the Iran-Iraq War.⁠[16]

The Shahid Ali Hashemi overpass in Ahvaz is one of the public structures named after him. The Shahid Ali Hashemi Memorial and Cultural Center in Ahvaz’s martyrs’ cemetery was also inaugurated in 2021.⁠[17]