Ali Sayyad Shirazi was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces who was assassinated and martyred by the People' s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in front of his residence in Tehran on 21 Farvardin 1378 (10 April 1999).

Ali Sayyad Shirazi was born in 1323 (1944– 45) into a religious family in Kabud Gonbad, Mashhad. Because of his father' s various assignments as an army officer, he lived in Mashhad, Gorgan, Shahroud, Amol, and Gonbad.⁠[1]

After obtaining his diploma in Tehran in 1342 (1963– 64), Ali took the entrance examination for the Officers' College in 1343 (1964– 65) and was admitted. In Mehr 1346 (September– October 1967), he graduated in the artillery branch and, after completing training courses in Shiraz and Isfahan, was transferred to the Tabriz Division and then to the Kermanshah Armored Division. In 1350 (1971– 72), he also married his paternal cousin, and they had two sons and two daughters.⁠[2]

In 1352 (1973– 74), Ali was sent to the United States, where he completed a ballistic meteorology course in the state of Oklahoma.⁠[3] After returning to Iran, he was transferred in 1353 (1974– 75) to the Isfahan Artillery Center.

Ali Sayyad Shirazi' s religious activities during this period aroused the sensitivity of Army Counterintelligence, and he was placed under surveillance. At the same time, as the Islamic Revolution intensified, he supported Imam Khomeini' s movement in the Army. For this reason, on the orders of Army Counterintelligence, he was initially prevented from being provided with weapons and from being assigned sensitive positions; ultimately, he was arrested on 19 Bahman 1357 (8 February 1979) and released three days later following the victory of the Islamic Revolution.⁠[4]

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Ali Sayyad Shirazi, together with Seyyed Yahya Rahim Safavi and Ahmad Salek, assumed responsibility for the Isfahan garrison. By inviting Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Khademi and Ayatollah Seyyed Jalal al-Din Taheri to speak at the garrison, they sought to prevent the destruction of military equipment and disorder in the garrison.

In the summer of 1358 (1979), with the outbreak of the counterrevolutionary unrest in Kurdistan, Ali went to Kurdistan together with Seyyed Yahya Rahim Safavi and Mostafa Chamran (Minister of Defense of the Interim Government). After the establishment of a joint Army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operations headquarters in Sanandaj, the sieges of Sanandaj and the garrisons of Marivan, Baneh, and Saqqez were broken, and Sanandaj was liberated after 21 days of resistance against the counterrevolutionaries. Following the success of this plan, Sayyad Shirazi was promoted by two ranks and, with the temporary rank of colonel— a rank that was being granted for the first time in the Iranian Army Ground Forces— was appointed commander of operations in the northwest of the country (West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah).

At the beginning of the imposed war, Colonel Sayyad Shirazi presented the “ Val-Asr” battle plan to confront enemy forces in the western region of the country, but Abolhassan Bani-Sadr (the then president) rejected it.⁠[5] A few months after the beginning of the war, despite opposition from many of the country' s military and political officials, he was dismissed from the Army by order of Bani-Sadr.⁠[6] He then proposed to the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a plan to establish its Planning and Operations Deputyship. With the support of Seyyed Yahya Rahim Safavi (commander of the IRGC Southern Operations Headquarters)⁠[7], he was invited by the IRGC to cooperate and took responsibility for the military training of IRGC commanders in a short-term (one-month) course. Sayyad Shirazi then became acting head of the IRGC Planning and Operations Deputyship, established a war room in Tehran, and prepared a plan for lifting the siege of Abadan for the IRGC.⁠[8]

After Bani-Sadr' s dismissal, Ali Sayyad Shirazi, having again received the rank of colonel, became commander of the Army in the western region of the country⁠[9] and, following the martyrdom of Major General Valiollah Fallahi on 9 Mehr 1360 (1 October 1981), was appointed Commander of the Army Ground Forces on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Supreme Defense Council and by order of Imam Khomeini.⁠[10]

As commander of the Army Ground Forces, drawing on his experience of cooperation with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in combating counterrevolutionary terrorist groups, he established the “ Joint Army and IRGC Headquarters” and referred to it as the “ Sacred Combination of the Army and the IRGC. ” Under this plan, Army and IRGC forces were positioned alongside one another down to the squad and platoon levels and were, in a sense, integrated, participating together in operations; during the approximately nine months that the plan was implemented, part of the country' s occupied territories was liberated.

Ali Sayyad Shirazi was Commander of the Army Ground Forces during Operations Tariq al-Quds, Fath al-Mubin, Beit al-Moqaddas, Ramadan, Muslim ibn Aqil, Motla' al-Fajr, Muharram, Val-Fajr 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9, Khyber, Badr, and Qader.⁠[11]

In the summer of 1365 (1986), following disagreements between IRGC and Army commanders over the conduct of the war, Sayyad Shirazi resigned.⁠[12] Since he had previously been appointed a member of the Supreme Defense Council by Imam Khomeini, he continued to serve in that capacity.⁠[13] On 18 Ordibehesht 1366 (8 May 1987), he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1367 (1988), when Iran' s western borders were again attacked by the Mojahedin and the Iraqi Army, although he held no organizational position, he volunteered to assist the combatants and played an important role in Operation Mersad and the defeat of the Mojahedin.⁠[14]

On 5 Mehr 1368 (27 September 1989), he received the First Degree of the Order of Fath together with 57 Army and IRGC commanders.⁠[15] In the same month, at the request of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Command and with the approval and order of the Commander-in-Chief, he became Deputy Inspector of the Armed Forces Command Staff, and in Shahrivar 1372 (August– September 1993), he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.⁠[16]

In 1373 (1994– 95), while teaching at Imam Ali Officers' University, Sayyad Shirazi, with the approval of the martyred Leader, established the War Studies Board, which was responsible for recording and preserving the history of the imposed war.⁠[17] On 16 Farvardin 1378 (5 April 1999), coinciding with Eid al-Ghadir, he was promoted to major general.⁠[18] Five days later, on the morning of 21 Farvardin 1378 (10 April 1999), he was assassinated and martyred by members of the People' s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (Mojahedin) in front of his residence in Tehran; after his martyrdom, he was promoted to lieutenant general.⁠[19]

The martyred Ayatollah Khamenei wrote in a message on the occasion of the martyrdom of Lieutenant General Ali Sayyad Shirazi: “ Like other men of truth, from the day they set foot on the path of the Revolution, they always held their lives and souls in their hands, ready to sacrifice them in the way of God. The hot lands of Khuzestan and the towering passes of Kurdistan witnessed for years the readiness and self-sacrifice of this pure-hearted, determined, and courageous man, and the fronts of the Sacred Defense preserve hundreds of memories of his bravery and self-sacrifice. ”⁠[20] The martyred Leader of the Revolution attended the early hours of the martyr' s funeral ceremony (23 Farvardin 1378 [12 April 1999]) at the Armed Forces General Staff headquarters⁠[21]and kissed his coffin, which was covered with the Iranian flag.⁠[22] Ultimately, his body was buried in Section 29 of the Martyrs' Cemetery of Behesht-e Zahra in Tehran.⁠[23]

The UN Secretary-General, France, Germany, the Vatican, and several other countries⁠[24]condemned the terrorist actions of the Mojahedin, and news of his martyrdom was reflected in foreign media.⁠[25] Agence France-Presse referred to him as the “ iron man” of the Iran-Iraq War fronts; CNN television network also called him one of the best-known commanders of the Iranian Army.⁠[26]

A highway in Tehran⁠[27] and a metro station have been named after this martyr.⁠[28]

Sayyad Shirazi' s last uniforms, as the conqueror of Khorramshahr, are kept in the Khorramshahr Museum⁠[29], and a statue of him has been installed atop Mount Damavand.⁠[30]

The books “ Lying in Wait for the Red Rose”, published by Sureh Mehr; “ Operation Shindara”, published by Iran Sabz; “ Sayyad' s Last Bullet”, published by Sarir; “ Celestials of the Earth” (Book Ten), published by Shahed; and “ Jelveh-ye Yar”, published by Iran Sabz, are among the written works, while the feature film *Water from Fire* and the documentaries “ Sayyad”, “ I Am Ali Sayyad Shirazi”, and “ The Major” are among the visual productions about Martyr Ali Sayyad Shirazi.